Bonding Outside The Bar
by Torlek
Summary: Amara and Chuck continue to be family again, after the events of Back At The Bar. (AU follow-up to Season 11)
1. Eye Of The Storm

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural.**

* * *

 **Eye Of The Storm**

A dark cloud and divine light are situated in the eye of a tropical cyclone. The Darkness and God had decided to take a break from their new home, the Bar, after spending quality time there recovering from their earlier family meeting. Now, they had shaped their true forms so as to make themselves audible.

"I like it here with you, Brother," declared the more feminine of the two entities, the dark cloud.

"The feeling's mutual, Sis," declared the more masculine of the two entities, the divine light, also her younger brother.

"Come to think of it: I haven't felt this peaceful since our time at our new home," jested the older sister. She heard a chuckle coming from the divine light, as they both remembered the time when she had said something similar without being family again with her younger brother.

"So, why are we here, of all places?" she expressed her curiosity.

"Well," the younger brother started, "I wanted to show you a non-living representation of the fundamental balance underpinning Creation, the balance of light and dark."

"We are in the center of a tropical cyclone," he narrated, "And outside this center is the storm's destructive power. This power is strongest while traversing oceans, but still causes human casualties and other destruction once it reaches land."

"However," he cautioned, "without these tropical cyclones, Earth will lose its heat balance. The planet's torrid zone would be unbearably warmer by human standards, and the temperate and frigid zones would be deprived of the warm, moist tropical air moved by these forces of nature. Without this air, there would be less rainfall than what is needed to sustain life on this planet."

"Also," he continued, "nutrient-rich water would not be cycled to replace surface water, and there would be less marine life."

"It's all amazing," the Darkness could not help repeating her compliments about the Creation before her.

"Destruction and Creation together," replied God, before their true forms formed a double helix once again.

* * *

 _Author's Note: All Bible quotations found in future chapters come from the NJPS version, unless stated otherwise at the end._


	2. Geysers And Supervolcanoes

**Geysers And Supervolcanoes**

The two primordial entities, the dark cloud and the divine light, teleported into the middle of a toxic geyser. The Darkness knew that there was more to God leading her here than meets the eye.

"I take it you wish to show me another representation of our balance?" asked the dark cloud.

"Actually, Sis," corrected the divine light, her younger brother, "I wanted to remind you. Remember the trip during our family meeting to the Toba caldera over seventy thousand years ago?"

"Who could forget?" responded the older sister in excitement, "We were literally on top of a super-eruption by that supervolcano! Show-off!"

She then paused to reminisce. During the frequent teleporting across all manner of space and time that was the family meeting, she as the Destroyer, and her younger brother as the Creator, felt all the destructive power that was released by the supervolcanic eruption. During that event, he took his time to explain to her the long-term effects of the eruption, both the terrifying and the beneficial.

 _Despite all this, Sis, the volcanic smoke will carry much-needed nutrients to the soil where the ash will fall. Humanity will survive this catastrophe!_

At the end of that conversation, the dark cloud understood, with perfect clarity, why the divine light did not design the supervolcanic magma chambers to be exposed to the surface instead and, ultimately, why supervolcanoes were necessary.

Situating herself back in the present, she realized the importance of where she truly was.

"I suppose this supervolcano is not yet ready to burst?" she got to the point with her inquiry.

"No, not yet," assured her younger brother, "We are in the middle of a beautiful, massive, and relatively stable park."

"Still," mused the Darkness as she appreciated the toxic fumes from the geyser, "It's a race against time for humanity and its technological development. It'll be very interesting to see if these most cherished creations of yours, the humans, can develop the means to capture the abundant energy accumulating in supervolcanic magma chambers."

"It's not impossible, Sis," declared God, "but human free will is a different beast from free will in other created beings."

Then, the two siblings formed a double helix of their true forms once again.


	3. And He Sent: Down To Earth

**Disclaimer: The next ten chapters have an occurrence date of December 17, 2016. It is possible for the previous two chapters to share the same date, as well as for an undefined number of chapters after these next ten to share the same date.**

* * *

 **And He Sent: Down To Earth**

The two primordial entities, the dark cloud and the divine light, teleported into an elevator. The Darkness assumed the form of Amara once again, and God did similarly with Chuck.

"Brother, did we really have to assume human forms again so soon?" wondered the former.

"Sis, we are here in this very place," uttered the latter.

"Where?" the older sister continued to ask.

"A house of prayer," answered the younger brother, who then assumed an appropriate attire.

 _Of all places, did we really have to go to another monument to your ego?_

 _Please don't freak out like you did in that unfortunate church. I promise: this place and time is special._

"Um, okay," muttered the elder sibling, who then assumed appropriate attire of her own.

The two siblings exited the elevator and took a brochure regarding today's service. They then gave themselves instantly all the knowledge needed to go through the motions of all parts of the service – awakening, communal prayer, personal prayers, readings, and concluding prayers – without getting lost. This knowledge just happened to include being fluent in another language.

Along the way to the main sanctuary, they greeted others in attendance and introduced their human selves. They felt that those in attendance should at least know of their sibling relationship, if not who they really were.

After finding themselves seated in an isolated area within the main sanctuary, they decided to give the appearance of having small talk with one another, while actually exchanging thoughts telepathically.

 _So what's so special about this place and time?_

 _A number of things are happening at this place today. I've also got something special for the head of this congregation after today's service; you'll see. As for time, it's the end of the week!_

 _And?_

 _And – I ceased my creative work for one full day after I finished with the creation of this world._

 _Oh, my God!_

 _Yeah, I hear that all the time. Also, you'll find that today's readings are very relevant for the two of us. We shouldn't spoil ourselves or each other too much further in this regard._

"Alright, Brother," suspired the Darkness, just before hearing the prayer leader begin with the service.

God acknowledged his older sister and turned his attention to the front of the sanctuary.


	4. And He Sent: Creation Prayers

**And He Sent: Creation Prayers**

Together, Amara and Chuck lip-synced in harmony the words of the creation prayers, prayer books in hand. The Darkness heard the congregation speak those words, and so did their God in their very midst. Meanwhile, they continued to exchange thoughts telepathically while slowing down and restoring all of time together.

"You form light and create darkness," chanted the congregation, in their language.

 _And create darkness, Brother? Really? Right._

 _They've got the ordering of the chant and the original text wrong, Sis. If they must credit me for whatever darkness I created, the least they could do is put the dark Yin part first, before the light Yang part._

 _That would be a tall order, but a very, very solid start._

 _After all, each of our days together, and even apart, have always begun with the onset of the dark hours before continuing with the onset of the bright hours._

 _And these are your peculiar people for sharing our view of the day, among many other things?_

 _Indeed._

"You make peace and create everything," chanted the congregation, in their language.

 _If I recall the original text correctly, the last word should refer to moral evil itself, not this euphemism._

 _I know. This really shouldn't be a compliment for me._

 _No, Brother, not after that little revelation of yours to me about whose image you used to create these humans, and not after how much I chewed you out for doing this alone._

 _It would have been a lot easier if your Mark had been the culprit, but…_

 _But like you yourself said, it isn't._

"In your goodness, day after day, you renew Creation," chanted the congregation, in their language.

 _Like I said before, what you've made is beautiful. I wish I could give you a kiss on the head, but because we're here…_

 _I know._

As the congregation finished the creation prayers, the Darkness and God prepared for the prayers yet to come.

* * *

 _Author's Note: All Bible quotations found in this chapter and in future ones come from the NJPS version, unless specified otherwise at the end._


	5. And He Sent: Listening

**And He Sent: Listening**

Amara continued her lip-syncing of the prayer liturgy along with Chuck. Seated together, the Darkness and God transitioned to the next major prayer of the service, all the while exchanging thoughts telepathically and manipulating all of time as they saw fit.

 _You certainly feel less, ahem, Lordly at this moment, o dearest God._

 _Just hear them, Sis._

 _Why should I just hear them when I'm actually listening to them and reading their thoughts?_

 _As you now know, they are a mixed bunch. There are those who try to connect with me, there are agnostics, and there are those who don't care but do this anyway._

Their ears caught the congregation chanting "the Eternal alone" in their language.

 _Why?_

 _Wanna learn their joke about two of their community's congregational heads disproving my existence, only to go to the prayer service the next morning? It's about community, tradition, psychological benefits, and all that jazz._

 _Anyway, what the congregation just declared didn't sound like a prayer, Brother._

 _That's why I like it, in a Zen sort of way. It isn't a friggin' petition, and it isn't a dry expression of gratitude._

 _It still strokes your ego, though._

Their ears caught the congregation chanting "with all your hearts" in their language.

 _Shouldn't that refer to brains instead of hearts?_

 _Old language habits die hard, but at least they're referring to the organ in the plural, not in the singular._

 _What's your point?_

 _All their inclinations, based on the image I used to create them, should be involved in the loving: the moral and the intellectual, as well as the amoral and the instinctive._

"Impress them upon your children," chanted the congregation, in their language.

 _Teaching from generation to generation: What else is new?_

 _You know, this peculiar bunch has a very undersold theology: that I created humans in general to be my theological partners in improving the world._

 _And what does that have to do with teaching from generation to generation?_

 _Well: nothing and everything._

 _Um, okay._

"Truth," recited the congregation, in their language. To the Darkness and God, that was their cue to prepare to stand.


	6. And He Sent: Standing

**And He Sent: Standing**

Amara rose to stand, and so did Chuck. The Darkness, along with God, felt the moods from the others in the congregation, as they prepared for the next prayer. Together, they continued their exchange of thoughts telepathically and their temporal tinkering as they saw fit.

"You remember the faithfulness of our ancestors," chanted the congregation, in their language.

 _What a long preamble before that part!_

 _These folks wish to be less patriarchal, Sis. The older version omitted the women._

 _Sometime in the future, Brother, they should simply start by blessing you for being family again with your older, stronger sister._

 _Who's got some ego now?_

 _You, still, since I've amply demonstrated my disinterest in being prayed to._

Their ears caught the congregation chanting "all life is your gift" in their language.

 _Sometime in the future, the next part should declare as great your ability to reconcile._

 _I love you, Sis._

"With love, you sustain the living; with great compassion, give life to all," chanted the congregation, in their language.

 _I just had to realize the very literal meaning of that the hard way._

 _Like you said, we're family again._

 _I wish we could embrace each other here, but because of this…_

 _I know. On a brighter note, until our confrontation, I preferred the older version of this section._

 _You mean the one about reviving the dead?_

 _Indeed. Before that moment, reviving the dead was at least a specific power, while giving life to all after Creation was an abstract concept to even the likes of me._

Not long after, the two siblings noted the congregation transitioning to personal prayers.

 _Now, we move onto the subject of one of the more sardonic chapters in your autobiography._

 _Ho-hum._

 _Here come the petitionary prayers!_

 _They should still be glad that I don't deal with those, except perhaps the ones asking for forgiveness._

Those in the congregation then uttered their personal prayers, while the Darkness continued to tease and God continued to tolerate the situation.


	7. And He Sent: Reading Rituals

**And He Sent: Reading Rituals**

After some sibling back-and-forth during the personal prayers of the congregation, Amara and Chuck prepared for the readings. The Darkness was fascinated by the procession and benedictions preceding the readings, and wondered why God never gave this reverent treatment to his very own Word of God. Now seated, the two siblings looked on at the designated reader.

 _Now can we spoil ourselves and each other with respect to today's readings?_

 _Just go for the entire sacred text only, Sis; no probing of people's minds or telepathic access to Internet articles or other literature._

 _Done._

"Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau," started the designated reader, chanting in the original language.

 _What can I say about the readings, Brother? They're all too relevant for the two of us, after all!_

 _Thanks for not freaking out this time._

 _You're most welcome!_

"I stayed with Laban and remained until now," chanted the designated reader, in the original language.

 _So, the amateur trickster was outdone by a bigger trickster?_

 _Yes, but he changed for the better because of the experience._

 _Aww, it's just like my very own, wonderful trickster-of-a-younger-brother changing because of his Creation's disappointments._

"I send this message to my lord in the hope of gaining your favour," chanted the designated reader, in the original language.

 _So, the amateur trickster refers to his elder sibling as his lord, and to himself as that lord's servant?_

 _Yes, and what he offered was like my aborted self-imprisonment offer._

"I have seen a divine being face to face, yet my life has been preserved," chanted the designated reader, in the original language.

 _So, did you go down from Heaven to wrestle with that trickster, or did you send one of your angels?_

 _Did I really do either?_

 _Oh? Do enlighten me._

 _The wrestler was none other than Esau himself!_

 _So, they did get their one-on-one, in the darkness of night, before reconciling in the light of day!_

 _Indeed. I may have cheated a second time, but we did get our one-on-one then and our tête-à-tête moments since._

 _Thus, it takes a one-on-one meeting between alienated siblings in order for the elder one to discover and accept that the younger one has changed._

As those in the congregation awaited to listen to the next part, the Darkness and God appreciated the relevance of this ancient story.


	8. And He Sent: Reading Reconciliation

**And He Sent: Reading Reconciliation**

Amara looked on at the designated reader, while Chuck turned his head to look down at his reading book for the next part. No observer would have noticed that the two siblings, the Darkness and God, were deep in appreciation of the ancient story being read.

"Looking up, Jacob saw Esau coming, accompanied by four hundred men," continued the designated reader, chanting in the original language.

 _After what you told me about their earlier encounter, this passage doesn't sound as suspenseful as it has been interpreted to be._

 _To each his own._

"Esau ran to greet him. He embraced him and, falling on his neck, he kissed him; and they wept," chanted the designated reader, chanting in the original language.

 _You know, Brother, I didn't give you a hug when we started our reconciliation._

 _You gave me more, Sis: you healed me from the fatal hurt I got from our confrontation._

 _Fully; that's what older, stronger sisters are for._

"Please accept my present," chanted the designated reader, in the original language.

 _Something tells me there's more to this present than meets the eye._

 _Yep; the younger sibling returned the very blessing he misappropriated from his older sibling._

 _Well, I don't recall you stealing anything from me._

 _No, but when we teleported across all manner of time and space during our family meeting, I helped you to learn how to create things and to be comfortable doing so._

"But Jacob journeyed on to Succoth," chanted the designated reader, in the original language.

 _It's unfortunate he didn't spend more time with his older brother, before their burial of their father. It would have prevented the trauma that befell his daughter, and things might have been more amicable between their descendants._

 _True, Sis, but it's not like the two of them were your Yin to my Yang. All of existence didn't depend on the two of them._

As all the chanting passed, it was the turn of the head of the congregation, this time to deliver the discourse on what was read.

 _Now can we spoil ourselves and each other with respect to today's readings?_

 _Oh, alright!_

Instantaneously, the Darkness established telepathic access to the relevant works on the subject matter, whether on the Internet or otherwise, while God recollected his past knowledge of those works.


	9. And He Sent: Discourse

**And He Sent: Discourse**

Amara looked intently at the head of the congregation as the discourse took its course, while Chuck did the same. All the while, both the Darkness and God continued their exchange of thoughts telepathically and their temporal tinkering as they saw fit, both probed people's minds on the subject, the former learned telepathically from the relevant works on the subject matter, and the latter recollected past knowledge of those works.

"So, who was the wrestler whom Jacob encountered?" the head of the congregation asked rhetorically.

 _Brother, thanks for letting me know who really wrestled that trickster, but I find the figurative interpretation being put forward appealing in its own way._

 _Oh yeah; the thought of the man wrestling with his amoral and instinctive inclinations, or what many people call inner demons, is a very powerful one. In a way, he did so while wrestling his own older brother, which is why the match didn't end quickly._

A discussion involving the congregation ensued.

 _I didn't expect this animated exchange of ideas._

 _And you wouldn't have gotten this meeting of the minds in that unfortunate church where you freaked out, or in so many other monuments to my ego, as you put it._

"To what extent was there reconciliation and reunion?" the head of the congregation asked rhetorically. Again, a discussion involving the congregation ensued.

"Jacob didn't ask Esau for forgiveness," noted someone in attendance.

 _You certainly did._

 _And so did you, Sis._

"The older brother went so far as to offering protection throughout his territory for the younger brother, while the latter deceived the former in order to travel in the opposite direction," another in attendance pointed out.

 _Like I said, things could have been better for them all if that one-time trickster stopped punishing himself emotionally._

 _Yep._

 _Now why does this small detail sound familiar?_

 _I think it's got something to do with that reunion with my sons, your nephews, and with your supernaturally superfluous but emotionally needed offer of protection for me – from them._

 _This you accepted, dear Brother. I was, am, and will be ready to protect you from punishing yourself emotionally._

 _And I, you, Sis._

All the while, the Darkness and God continued to take in the rest of the discussion from the congregation.


	10. And He Sent: Concluding Prayers

**And He Sent: Concluding Prayers**

Amara and Chuck were still seated as the lively discussion came to a close. The Darkness shared one more discussion point with God.

 _You know, by leaving your role back then out of this, these congregants actually brought your experience and mine into the forefront!_

 _That's why they're my peculiar bunch, and not just a peculiar bunch. They can be your peculiar bunch, too, if you're interested._

 _It would have to be an invisible, one-way street. Like I said earlier, I'm just not comfortable with being prayed to._

As the prayer leader took his turn to lead the concluding prayers, the congregation stood, and so did the two siblings, who lip-synced in harmony the words of the concluding prayers, prayer books in hand.

"Let us now praise the Sovereign of the universe," started the congregation, in their language. As they continued, the two siblings shared their thoughts.

 _Among the varied strokes to your ego, this one is not so bad. It mentions your oneness and their obligation to uphold this world._

 _The best part, Sis, is that this version of the first section is nowhere near as chauvinistic or denigrating as the traditional one._

Their ears caught the congregation reciting "turning all the wicked of the earth toward you" in their language.

 _Aww, that's so beautiful._

 _It's beautiful only if everybody's got free will every step of the way, but yeah, this isn't the stereotypical me destroying the wicked!_

As one concluding prayer ended, the siblings listened to a lengthy preamble to the next one. One mention caught their attention.

 _Wait a minute. Didn't your one-time favourite son list this horrific event when he said to your face that he'd double down on his refusal to love humanity more than you?_

 _Yes, he did, right after I informed him of that which you chastised me before then._

 _And that which you were reminded of again, this morning._

 _Anyway, let's visit the historic horror's most terrifying memorial at some point._

 _Indeed._

As the congregation recited this concluding prayer, Amara resisted the urge to give them a curious look.

 _Brother, why are neither death nor the deceased mentioned?_

 _This isn't about what happened, but rather about the lives of the mourners after their mourning. It's about moving on, and hope for the future._

Once the prayer service was over, both the Darkness and God felt fulfilled.


	11. Luncheon And Prospects

**Luncheon And Prospects**

Amara followed Chuck out of the main sanctuary, as it was being vacated by the congregants. The Darkness entered the social hall after God and, by probing others' minds, learned about the communal luncheon they were about to partake in. All the same, the two siblings continued with their telepathic exercises.

 _So, this entails more than munching on things?_

 _Yeah, it's chat time, too. Like I said earlier, I've gotta connect with the very multi-talented psychologist and theologian over there._

 _Multi-professional? You mean the very head of this congregation?_

 _Yep. The ordained work we witnessed is merely the third professional occupation of that person._

The participants said their benedictions, and then partook in the luncheon. The older sister was curious about her younger brother's eagerness to connect with the head of the congregation.

 _And what's so special about your prospective connection?_

 _Remember Donatello Redfield?_

The Destroyer did indeed remember this lone survivor from the deadly fog she had unleashed on a town, this mere mortal who had pierced her warding to locate her, and this one man who knew where the Creator was hiding at the time.

 _Of course; it's because of his soul, dear Brother, that I'll always find you._

 _Well, Sis, I…_

The elder sibling then felt that she should have known more instantaneously.

 _Wait a minute. Are you planning to make… this congregational head your new… Prophet?_

 _That's only part of the plan, given the prospect's career background. Plus, the non-career background is a treasure of bonuses, too._

The last remark almost caught Amara's curiosity. However, given the social setting that she and Chuck were in, finding out more about that background could wait.

In the meantime, the older sister, now without her younger brother beside her, almost felt shy about the occasion. It helped greatly that she probed others' minds in order to demonstrate comfortably the proper luncheon etiquette. However, she noticed a couple of shy individuals, who most certainly could not probe others' minds, much less control those, and identified with them in sympathy.

As the Darkness made her efforts to feel comfortable about the communal luncheon and those around her, God made his approach towards his prospective connection.


	12. Countenance To Countenance

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural. For this story, I own only one original character: Moses Levinsky.**

* * *

 **Countenance To Countenance**

From a distance, Amara could see Chuck just about finishing his approach towards his prospective connection. For her part, the Darkness summoned the confidence to approach the shy individuals whom she had noticed earlier, just to engage them in small talk.

For his part, God started out by congratulating his prospective connection.

"That was a pleasantly interactive discussion, Rabbi Levinsky," he summoned the words.

"Why, thank you very much, Mister…" responded the rabbi.

"Chuck Shurley," the bearded man introduced himself and extended his hand. The two men shook hands.

"The pleasure is all mine. I'm Moses Levinsky," the other man introduced himself.

The conversation between the two men was going very smoothly. The rabbi explained why the discourse had to become a discussion, and why he was not comfortable being a one-way preacher. As the two-man conversation progressed, the two primordial siblings exchanged their reflections telepathically.

 _So, congregational discussion is his style of teaching, huh?_

 _To each his own, Sis._

 _Brother, when are you going to strike him, ahem, 'up' with your Prophet-making lightning?_

 _Most of the time, that's an act of high-ranking angels, not mine. With only a couple of very recent exceptions, I never appointed humans to any position of Prophet through a lightning strike._

 _So how will he become your new Prophet?_

 _You'll see. Also, given the particularly high position and mandate I've got ahead for this particular guy, I'm inclined to grant him a level of prophecy far greater than that arising from Prophet-making lightning._

 _How great are we talking about here?_

 _Like, coming in the form of audiovisual waking revelations from the timeless Divine directly, countenance to countenance?_

 _Oh, my God! Last time you went to the highest level, you turned instruments into Hands of God!_

 _That second part came just afterwards, but you've got the relative timeframe._

Meanwhile, Chuck was pleasantly surprised that he did not have to bring his older sister into the conversation and invite her over. He introduced himself as an author, while hearing his prospective conversation confirm his main occupations as a psychologist and a theologian.

When their conversation had ended, the two men exchanged contact information. The Darkness noted that the communal luncheon had ended, and that it was time for her and for God to enjoy what was left of their day before sunset ushered in the dark hours of the next day.


	13. Heart To Heart

**Heart To Heart**

The two primordial entities, in the form of Amara and Chuck, found themselves walking in a park. It was time for the Darkness to have a heart-to-heart conversation with God about the latter's newest connection.

"So, Brother, what exactly was that something special you had for your newest connection during today's luncheon?" inquired the older sister, "It's not like we'll bump into him again until sometime next week, at the earliest."

"My bad," uttered the younger brother, "It's amazing what small talk can do in terms of delaying a person's calling."

 _Now, about that calling: Why do you feel the need to communicate prophecy with this human through audiovisual waking revelations? Have you somehow found a renewed compulsion to be a little more active in this world?_

 _Sis, the last time I communicated in such a manner, I had a tight platonic friendship, or bromance, with a living man._

"While I now appreciate the times when you need something else, something that isn't me, wasn't that man your decades-long soundboard?" recalled Amara.

"He was much more than that," reminisced Chuck, "He was my sparring partner in every intellectual manner. He was a man who even had the chutzpah, as they say, to rebuke me, countenance to countenance, when I went overboard emotionally."

 _If he's that special to you, why not bring him back instead of recruiting this new guy?_

 _In each generation of humanity, there is always at least one who could be drawn out to tap into this potential. To bring the old man back would rob this modern man of his opportunity to be drawn out, and would rob this generation of its contemporary inspiration._

 _I see._

 _This time around, I think we – you and I – will need such a friend, given what we've been through together. The fields of theology and psychology, and also the highest level of prophecy, provide the three-punch combo needed for the quality intellectual sparring and rebukes._

"Isn't Dean good enough?" suggested the older sister.

"He may be more than great for emotion-related matters, but you and I know that he's only a hunter," sighed the younger brother, "Besides, you're still very much in the mood to reciprocate to him for kick-starting our catching up."

"Alright, let's meet Moses Levinsky again as early as he's available next week," the Darkness conceded. God nodded.


	14. Dangerous Conversation

**Dangerous Conversation**

Amara was fortunate that she and Chuck were standing in an area of the park that was avoided by humans, due to the predatory and other dangerous wildlife nearby. The Darkness sensed that fascinating wildlife, while God knew that she wanted to intimidate them, even if only for a brief moment, while conversing.

"At least here we can talk more vocally," she commented.

"And while we're at it, why don't I nudge examples of dangerous wildlife to come over here to satisfy your curiosity, as a bonus?" suggested her younger brother. Upon her agreement, he nudged a black bear, a cougar, a coyote, and a wolf to where the two of them were.

"Not exactly a wolf lying with a lamb, is it?" remarked Amara, noting how the younger brother overrode those animals' instincts so as not to attack one another.

"No," conceded Chuck, "but close enough."

"So, Brother, wanna sic these predators on your older, stronger sister for her curiosity?" invited the elder sibling with a very teasing voice, "Wanna be the supernatural inspiration behind these makeshift hellhounds? Curiosity kills the feline, you know, unless that feline is a large apex predator."

"Nah," the younger sibling declined, "it would be too ironic for me, Sis. Let's see them develop, on their own, a killer instinct gunning for you."

Upon their arrival, each of the four animals gazed upon the two human forms and, while ignoring one another, identified the more slender form as their prey. Very slowly, they made their predatory moves in anticipation of their attack, only to sense the slender form ooze a dark aura. Within their instincts, this dark aura signaled to them that they were far inferior to that which they aimed to prey upon.

Suddenly intimidated, each of the four animals backed off, only to sense the other form ooze a light aura. Within their instincts, this light aura signaled to them that they were encouraged to stay and keep watch over the two human forms and the area in general. Relieved, the four animals did just that.

"Good pets," the Darkness teased them, as her aura spread out to pet each of them.

"Now we can really talk more vocally," God emphasized to her.


	15. Dealing With Souls

**Dealing With Souls**

The two human forms, the slender form of Amara and the bearded form of Chuck, were guarded from interlopers by different kinds of dangerous wildlife. The Darkness summoned her surrounding aura back closer to herself, as God maintained his own aura for the wildlife to sense.

"I know that look," the older sister stated matter-of-factly.

"Indeed," affirmed her younger brother before taking a deep breath.

"Do you still need all those souls that you've absorbed?" he popped the question.

The Destroyer took her time to contemplate that question. Here she was, the oldest and most powerful entity in existence. Here she was, the one entity who healed, without difficulty, the Creator of the fatal damage she had inflicted upon him in misguided revenge. Here she was, having become stronger in more ways than embodying destructive power since the start of her reconciliation with her younger brother. Here she was, more attuned to all the latent darkness throughout existence now than she was then.

Here Amara was, confronted by a question which she knew was more about character than about raw power.

"From the perspective of raw power, I no longer need all those demons or humans, or even an angel or two," she started her response by stating the obvious.

"From the perspective of memories and experiences, I can retain all those without retaining the beings," she verbalized her thoughts on foreign memories and experiences.

"However, even you can only share so much when it comes to intelligent knowledge," she expressed her concern, "After all, it was you who suggested that we visit that terrifying memorial of genocide later on. You would not have suggested that if you were capable of sharing with me all the victims' memories and experiences."

"Tell you what, Brother," she proposed calmly, "How about I borrow, just borrow, all other dead intelligent beings' souls at some relatively quick point in time? Of course, I would have to be in my true form to do this, covering each of those souls in part of that form."

"Sis, you've got yourself a deal," Chuck accepted.

"I haven't finished my proposal," cautioned the Darkness.

God wondered about what else his older sister was considering on the subject of souls.


	16. Soul Proposal

**Soul Proposal**

Amara was satisfied with Chuck's acceptance of the first part of their deal, but that was only the first part. The Darkness prepared to explain to God what the rest of the deal entailed.

"For example," she began, "you and I could visit the so-called 'Republic of Heaven' sooner than we anticipated. While you slow time down, I could spread my true form into every personal paradise, absorb each soul inhabiting a personal paradise…"

Before their reconciliation, the Creator would most certainly have objected to any form of the Destroyer absorbing the souls residing in Heaven, in the Veil, in the Empty, or even in Hell. Now, this proposal to merely borrow souls was, however amoral, very reasonable.

"Assimilate each soul's memories and experiences," the older sister continued, "then restore each soul like I will do to my current ones."

"Like I said, however," she reminded her younger brother, "I haven't finished my proposal."

The younger brother inquired, "So, what's the rest of your proposal?"

"Well," Amara mused, "to each absorbed soul, I've given personalized bliss."

Despite all of what happened leading to their confrontation, Chuck could not deny how she treated those souls since she absorbed them.

"What if, Brother, my very essence were to become a permanent, blissful refuge for certain souls not treated fairly by the Reapers?" the confidante suggested.

"Sis," replied her confidant towards her rather intriguing suggestion, "Didn't we just change the purpose of Purgatory to fit human needs for purification? Didn't we just agree upon the creation of the Bottomless Pit so that all monsters could be moved there?"

"Indeed," the older sister agreed, "However, that doesn't mean the Reapers will now avoid the Empty. Our dearest new leader of the Reapers informed me that the Empty is the absolute place for a soul that they themselves wish to keep from being resurrected again. Although you or I could resurrect that soul, no one else can."

"Yeah, I know that already," the younger brother dismissed the explanation.

"Guess who's at the top of their list?" the Darkness asked rhetorically.

It did not take long for God to recall whom his older sister wished to give up his smallness and become boundless within her very essence.


	17. Soul Acceptance

**Soul Acceptance**

The deal for souls between the two siblings, Amara and Chuck, became a personal matter. The Darkness persisted with God, nonetheless.

"Should I give you three guesses?" offered the older sister to her younger brother, who was preparing his response.

"About who's at the top of their list," responded the younger brother, "or about the only one on yours? Come on, Sis, you're pining to become the permanent, blissful refuge for one particular soul only!"

Amara resisted the urge to admit it, but Chuck noticed the slight features on her face.

"I may have been obsessive-compulsive in my love for the balance of light and dark throughout Creation, up to the point of letting it determine whose image I used to create all men and all women," he admitted, "but you can't say you're any different when it comes to real and perceived reciprocity towards him!"

"But I told him that we will always be bound," recalled the confidante, "and that we will always help each other, did I not?"

"I love you and will always love you, Brother," the Destroyer declared and cupped the Creator's cheek with her hand, "but I know you're the one who stopped him from having all the bliss. I also know that you won't stop this again, because you can't."

This time, it was Amara who noticed the wide-eyed features on Chuck's face.

"Do you think I ignored one of the real reasons you wish to have a tight platonic friendship with an expert in theology and psychology, and in the process communicate prophecy with him through nothing less than audiovisual waking revelations?" she related her desire to his.

"You should know that I know your desire for him to be your theological and psychological soundboard concerning our… mutual and prolonged thought experiment," she intimated mildly, "before this break of ours from our new home."

The older sister observed her younger brother become nervous about that reminder.

"So, you and I will meet Moses Levinsky again, he'll become your prophetic soundboard, and he'll be all yours for the rest of his God-ordained life and beyond, while Dean will be all mine after his final physical death," the Darkness concluded.

At this point, God gave his meek acceptance to this deal for souls prior to witnessing all those souls being released en masse from the dark aura just in front of him.


	18. Soul Concerns

**Soul Concerns**

Amara had just emanated much power heading in the directions of Heaven, Hell, the refurbished Purgatory, and even the Veil, all to Chuck's observation. The Darkness had completed her deal for souls with God, and accordingly released all the souls she had absorbed, only to notice the latter project a look of concern.

"I'm all ears," the older sister encouraged.

"You wanted Dean originally," her younger brother confided, "because you thought we couldn't be family again. You thought he could substitute for me. It's funny how you want him now, after all of this, precisely because he's not me at all."

The confidante paused to acknowledge those words in her mind.

"So, how are you going to break this part of our deal to him?" inquired the confidant, "How do you plan for Sam to take it, since he is on the Reapers' Empty list but not on yours?"

Upon hearing this, Amara nudged the four predatory animals on the watch nearby to disperse, and gave the perception to Chuck that she was summoning a terrifying power to their presence. Based on recent experience, the younger brother was not surprised about who was being enjoined.

After the four animals had dispersed, the two primordial entities beheld a dark essence, not unlike the older sister, that had appeared to surround them in a dark cloud. After greeting the two entities telepathically, this dark cloud was briefed, still telepathically, on the deal that had transpired, before shaping its true form so as to make itself audible.

"I shall tell the Reapers to make the appropriate changes towards who is destined to go to the Empty," declared a voice from the dark cloud, "I shall inform them that their former leader met his demise at the hands of Dean and Dean alone, and that Sam neither aided nor abetted in that demise. That should placate them."

Chuck smiled, in acknowledgment of that statement.

"I shall also tell them to abide by this compromise regarding the ultimate fate of Dean's soul," continued the voice.

Amara gave her own acknowledgment.

"As for Dean himself, I shall tell him about his soul's ultimate fate, and that I shall reap personally his soul and Sam's," emphasized the voice, to the satisfaction of the Darkness.

"That still doesn't address whether Sam's soul will ever again interact with Dean's," God interjected.


	19. Soul Resolution

**Soul Resolution**

For the first time in all of existence, Amara and Chuck found themselves within a primordial-level dark cloud that was not intertwined with the former's own essence. The Darkness was quite honoured by the dark essence that chose to appear in this very manner, while God was more concerned with human souls.

"I beg your pardon?" asked the older sister. Apparently, she paid quite the attention to the voice from the dark cloud, such that she did not pay enough attention to her younger brother's concern for Sam.

"Sis, how will Sam's soul ever again interact with Dean's?" repeated the younger brother, "I mean, if you separate them forcibly and unduly, he'll find a way to reunite with his brother, just as his brother did after preventing the Apocalypse."

Both the Destroyer and the dark essence turned their attention to those words, and pondered about them considerably with a pause.

"On that front, I can go only as far as ensuring that those two mortals die simultaneously when you wish for Dean's physical death to be final," offered the voice from the dark cloud, "Visitation rights are not in my job description."

Amara nodded, expressing her acceptance of that offer.

"Then I won't separate them forcibly or unduly, Brother," she resolved, having turned her attention towards her brother, "I'll just focus on building his relationships behind the scenes and influencing the development of his faraway personal heaven. As a contingency, if I could resurrect his and Dean's mother, then why couldn't I resurrect one or more of his deceased significant others? After all, humans have proven time and again that they can love their mates much more than their siblings."

Chuck gave a visibly wide-eyed reaction to that last remark. Despite not perceiving any words behind those words, he could not help but think that this could be happening to his very own sister. Otherwise, he could not help but think that her plan had a very realistic chance of working.

"At least I am not the one doing the resurrecting," the voice from the dark cloud expressed relief, "In my current capacity, I am not supposed to resurrect people, though I might make only one exception per person."

The Darkness nodded in acknowledgment, before dismissing the dark cloud, to the relief of God.

 _Remember: Dean and I are meant to be after his final physical death._


	20. Hell Freezes Over

**Hell Freezes Over**

Now that the questions concerning Dean and Sam had been resolved, Amara turned to Chuck. Now, the Darkness wanted to initiate the next part of the deal she had made with God.

"Brother," began the older sister, "shall we start with Hell?"

"Why there, Sis?" inquired her younger brother.

"I'd like it for you and I to start off easy on your end of the deal," answered the confidante, "Besides, I don't think Hell has ever frozen over, until now."

"Just where did you get that deliciously wicked sense of humour of yours?" teased the confidant.

"Humans: gotta love wicked humour when they're the source of it," acknowledged Amara, before she and Chuck took to their true forms and travelled slowly to Hell, intending to arrive there within an hour after sunset.

Upon entry, the divine light manipulated time across all Creation to almost, just almost, a standstill, for the dark cloud to do her work.

"It's funny; during the growth of my vessel, the demons who used me were concerned that I absorbed more souls than they could produce," recalled the dark cloud, "and now here I am again, with more than enough power to outdo that soul crisis of theirs if I wanted to."

The two entities entered the throne room. The dark cloud could not resist expressing disgust at the one seated on the throne.

"Who would have thought I would be face-to-face again with this demon who used me?" she snarled, looking at Crowley.

"Used you?" the divine light expressed curiosity.

"This lesser being had the very, very shortsighted aim of pulling my strings in a great demonic war against Heaven," responded the confidante.

"So he wanted you to be the Antichrist to his Devil?" asked the confidant.

"More or less, and he had the gall to ask me how, just how, you locked me away. Enough of that, though," uttered the Destroyer. She ended that conversation in that manner for the Creator's sake, so that the latter would not wallow in unnecessary guilt.

With those words, her dark essence covered as much of Hell as she could and found all the souls she was after. Without a second thought, she reenacted her past absorption of souls, and focused on absorbing their memories and experiences.

When all was complete, the Darkness released every soul she had absorbed, to the satisfaction of God.


	21. Cage No More

**Cage No More**

After releasing the souls, the dark cloud observed the divine light continue to manipulate time. The Darkness was curious about this action by God.

"You still have your grip on time," noted the older sister, "I take it you want us to do something else while Hell remains frozen?"

"I'd like to show you the deepest, darkest part of Hell," blurted the younger brother.

The next moment, the two primordial entities found themselves with a cage in front of them.

"Why Lucifer's cage?" inquired the more feminine of the two entities, who recalled Lucifer's brief anecdote about his imprisonment during the reunion of her nephews at the Bar.

"As you already know," responded the more masculine of the two entities, "my wayward son encouraged both the human consumption of the forbidden fruit and the first homicide. Beyond that, the latter was concocted out of his desire to transfer your mark to someone else. Also, he twisted another human into the first demon."

"We're here," he explained, "because a part of myself would like you to do something that I just might not have enough courage to do."

Instantly, the Destroyer understood.

"Ah, so that part of yourself wishes me to destroy this contraption, then?" she suggested, before considering a rhetorical approach.

A brief respite ensued between the two of them, as her dark aura swirled around to make a thorough examination of the cage.

"That part of yourself remains fearful," she remarked, "that your one-time favourite son or another immediate son of yours will lapse back to their old ways."

"That part of yourself believes that this cage remains a useful safeguard against that," she reasoned, "even though the humans have demonstrated that there are lesser means to enter and exit this cage without breaking more of those seals."

"Like I said back home," she recalled, "you've got a spotty record when it comes to securing your prisoners."

"Very well," she agreed, "for the sake of my nephews, your sons, will this horrible cage be no more."

The dark cloud surrounded the cage and rattled it, shattering the remaining safeguards first, then shattering the rest of the cage, before imploding what remained into nothingness. Afterwards, the divine light released his grip on time, and signaled a request to leave Hell.

The Darkness obliged, and thus she and God teleported out of Hell in their true forms.


	22. Into The Abyss

**Into The Abyss**

The two nigh-omnipotent entities, the dark cloud and the divine light, teleported into the Bottomless Pit. The Darkness recalled all too well her conversation with God that spurred the creation of this realm.

She marveled at her very own handiwork, made from a small portion of the abundant primordial basis of dark matter, as well as a result of stepping out of her usually destructive comfort zone and learning from her divine companion how to create. This was the place she had convinced him to transfer all the monster inhabitants of Purgatory to.

The Bottomless Pit derived its main features from its dark creator. Enormously powerful was it that even dark instruments created recently could not individually destroy it. Its pull upon its inhabitants, all monster inhabitants, was designed to be immense, such that no physical light could escape. Its inhabitants would always be subject to spaghettification, yet would always see all of Creation in one small patch of their view, including everything behind the core of the abysmal realm itself. This realm could not be anything less than supermassive, or else the immediately surrounding primordial basis of dark matter could not accumulate around it through darkly yet beautiful motions. If created beings were to observe and feel this realm from a safe distance, they would see the supernatural equivalent of a supermassive black hole in all its beauty, yet feel the darkly pull of the supernatural equivalent of a stellar black hole.

In other ways, the Bottomless Pit was so much like its dark creator that it could not resemble a black hole. Though its inhabitants, all monster inhabitants, would always be subject to spaghettification, they would never be torn apart or tortured by it. Though they would always be subject to the supernatural equivalent of black hole rain, they would never be fried or tormented by this otherwise deadliest form of light.

"You definitely helped me step out of my comfort zone on this one, Brother," thanked its dark creator.

"Sis, its features are just like you," complimented the other guest.

"Just as light cannot escape, our family ties could not be severed," stated the Darkness, matter-of-factly.

"Just as light can be found even within this darkness for all to see," observed God, noting the inhabitants' literal ability to see all of Creation from a limited viewing range, "even we cannot avoid our balance."


	23. Two To Tango

**Two To Tango**

The dark cloud and the divine light travelled as a beautiful, horizontal double helix, dancing further into the Bottomless Pit. As they did so, the Darkness noticed God letting himself be pulled, even if slowly, towards the core of the abysmal realm itself.

"Are you, by chance, trying to get carried away here?" questioned its dark creator.

"Not really," answered the other partner in the divine tango, "I'm reserving myself for when I'll need to grab a hold on time again. That will happen once we're in the best position for you to do your thing."

The more feminine of the two entities followed suit and let herself be pulled, as well. The horizontal double helix danced closer and closer to the core, allowing the latter to continue exercise its pull. Meanwhile, the more masculine of the two entities, her younger brother, thought of how to pass the time.

"May I play some dance music to kill the time?" he suggested. Apparently, he bored easily of moving in silence, yet not enough to want to simply teleport to their destination.

"Why dance music?" the older sister asked in curiosity.

"Well, we're, you know, dancing – just dancing towards the core of this place," the younger brother metaphorized his movement.

"Brother, neither you nor I are in human form, let alone going through dance motions," the confidante expressed her state of perplexity, "Besides, I don't think this sober place is ideal for the two of us to dance."

"Sis, that was a metaphor," the confidant shed some light, "We're not exactly moving arms and legs in some human dancing rhythm."

The dark cloud understood the metaphor quickly enough.

"Well, Dearest," she cooed, "If you must insist on dance music, then I must insist on the tune."

"Go ahead," the divine light accepted the insistence.

Had the older sister been in human form, she would have smirked. Intently, she chose music that was sensitive for her younger brother to play, knowing that it would put him in a mildly uncomfortable position. The Darkness thus seized another opportunity to remind God about their mutual and prolonged thought experiment back at the Bar.


	24. First Primordial Monsters

**First Primordial Monsters**

At last, the dark cloud and the divine light reached the core of the Bottomless Pit. Together, the Darkness and God reached this one place where no inhabitant could be found.

The two primordial entities went about their business with the inhabitants. Because of the peculiar pull from the core and the currents across this abysmal realm, the more feminine of the two entities was able to reach all inhabitants at once with her dark essence. She proceeded to absorb them all, and focused on their memories and experiences.

"Brother, now I really appreciate how things felt for your special angelic interest when he absorbed all these millions," she commented.

"At least the first primordial monsters can't have their way with you like they did with him, Sis," assured the more masculine of the two entities.

"Speaking of whom," stated the dark creator of the abysmal realm, "they… oh, they really hit the spot."

Last time she had uttered something similar, her smitten human form struggled to maintain her balance. Now, at full power, the oldest and most powerful entity in existence could not feel anything but divine amusement towards the unconscious forms of the first primordial monsters jerking from one direction to another, as if they were resisting her, struggling to break free.

"I know that your instinct is to resist, but I can't be resisted," she taunted their bodily forms.

There it was for the dark cloud to recall: the very beginning of their existence.

Originally, her divine companion had created two supermassive and terrifying primordial gestalts, one with masculine characteristics and the other with feminine characteristics. A realization settled in, that if these two reproduced, then they and their offspring would chomp the entire petri dish of primordial and later Creation, as Death had put it. To prevent this, the divine light tasked his four immediate sons to banish the gestalt with masculine characteristics to a distant dimension and break up the gestalt with feminine characteristics. This they did, and so the first primordial monsters, the Leviathans, emerged as the unconscious remnants of the latter. More recently, their failed plan to consume the billions of humans was an unconscious attempt to regain the power needed to reconstruct the second gestalt and bridge back the first one, somehow.

For her part, the Darkness faced temptations to reunite them against God's wishes.


	25. Monster Mother

**Monster Mother**

The dark cloud, sensitive to the divine light's considerations, fended off the alluring temptations to reunite the Leviathans into the primordial gestalt with feminine characteristics, to bridge back the primordial gestalt with masculine characteristics, to upgrade their power and satiate their hunger once and for all, and to adopt them as either her primordial pets or her primordial enforcers. Next, the Darkness, while being observed by God, turned her focus towards a crawling monster mother with Leviathan characteristics.

As the older sister absorbed their diverse memories and experiences, one gross misunderstanding came to her attention. The monster mother perceived her part of the natural order as being comprised of the balanced killings of her progeny and humans in turn, and even attempted to turn all humans into monsters in response to learning of a plot of Hell to turn them all into demons.

"Where did this crawling hybrid get her twisted view from?" demanded the dark cloud.

"I cursed her with it, actually," confessed the divine light.

"Do enlighten me," huffed the Destroyer.

"I will put enmity between you and the woman," the Creator chanted in the ancient language the two of them had familiarized themselves with recently. He also made it clear to his divine companion that she herself was not being referenced at all.

"And between your offspring and hers," he continued chanting, "They shall strike at your head, and you shall strike at their heel."

"So she, not Lucifer, was the serpent in the Garden of Eden?" asked the older sister, to which her younger brother affirmed.

"Lucifer snuck into the Garden and found her," recounted the younger brother, "then enticed her into slithering her way towards snatching the Garden for herself."

"So, you cursed her with her twisted view for colluding?" inquired the dark essence, to her divine companion's affirmation.

"Actually," added the latter, "so grave was her collusion, against the Adam and Eve of the Biblical account, that I cursed her with something else before the curse of enmity."

"I'm listening," offered the Destroyer, awaiting the chant.

"On your belly shall you crawl and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life," chanted the Creator, before transitioning towards normal conversation, "This she did whenever she was banished back into Purgatory, and now her body is crawling here before you."

The Darkness regarded the hybrid coldly, which God appreciated.


	26. First Pagan Collection

**First Pagan Collection**

Still in the core of the Bottomless Pit, the dark cloud and the divine light turned their attention towards a number of new inhabitants: some of the planned inhabitants amongst the billions of that existing pagan crop who dared to call themselves deities. The Darkness prepared to absorb their diverse memories and experiences, while God continued his grip on time.

"For all these beings' pretensions, Brother, within the omniverse itself and within their respective pocket dimensions, or pocket universes, none of them would have fared well against even the mere sight of any of your four immediate sons, my immediate nephews, manifested in true form," evaluated the older sister, who then started her absorptions.

"Sis, at least Lucifer spared their kind that over-the-top agony and went straight to killing them in combat," added her younger brother.

The Destroyer then focused on some beings of the pagan pantheons of Mesopotamian origin. She observed the souls of Anu, Ashur, Ea, and Marduk, the respective heads of their rival pantheons, all lifeless against the dark essence enveloping them. Next, she observed the souls who deemed themselves to be the equally rivalrous deities of agriculture, sexuality, plagues, and war. Not to be left to ignorance, she then observed the souls who deemed themselves to be the deities of the sun, the moon, and the underworld.

All the while, the true primordial chaos experienced these beings' confirmed participation in thousands of human sacrifices. She felt the horror of each human sacrifice, as if it had happened only recently. She then experienced each of the subsequent power-augmenting moments of these remorseless beneficiaries, only to regard these grotesque moments with disgust. For all the beneficiaries' augmented power during their pagan time under the sun, they lacked the mitigating ability to release their victims' souls; the remnants of the latter had to be reaped forcibly, before they could be sent to their respective afterlives.

"Though you abominations from Anduruna have been neither vanquished by true primordial chaos nor worthy to be vanquished accordingly, the one who posed as Tiamat brought your souls here to be lifeless against such – against me," the Darkness boasted, as she continued to absorb their diverse memories and experiences.

Thus, a slightly nervous God caught her darkly allusion to a great power other than the two of them, the one who had prevailed against all four pagan pantheons simultaneously.


	27. Second Pagan Collection

**Second Pagan Collection**

Once the dark cloud had finished absorbing the diverse memories and experiences of all the beings of the pagan pantheons of Mesopotamian origin, the first planned inhabitants amongst the billions of that existing pagan crop who dared to call themselves deities, she turned her attention to the second planned inhabitants, while the divine light maintained a firm hold on time. Now, the Darkness focused on some beings of the pagan pantheons of Egyptian origin, beings whom God had made a civilization-wide mockery of.

First, she observed the souls of Sobek, Hapi, Heqet, Geb, Khepri, Apis and Hathor, Isis and Thoth, Nut, Anubis and Seth, and Ra.

"Brother, this is quite an array of self-described deities whom you've made a mockery of," complimented the older sister, "You sure showed your power over crocodiles, rivers, frogs, lice, flies, livestock, skin afflictions, skies, locusts, and solar bodies…"

"And over those who claimed to have power over them, Sis," interjected her younger brother, "The only ones missing from this Bottomless Pit are those humans who believed that they themselves were deities."

Next, the confidante observed the rivalrous souls of Atum and Amun.

"As if one solar deity from Duat weren't enough for one ancient human civilization to be manipulated by, huh?" she asked contemptuously.

Moving on, the dark cloud observed the soul of Aten, and noted some recent treachery.

"So, this treacherous being of monolatrous veneration tried to win the trust of whom he thought was Naunet?" she wondered, recalling the primordial trickery of a nephew of hers, as well as the recent trickery of an acquainted witch.

Broadening her observation so that it covered all those from Duat, the Destroyer declared, "Perhaps the one who posed as Naunet, to cast your souls here, could give you a much more satisfying existence than your wasted lifetimes of abomination."

The Creator became slightly nervous, once again, at the dark allusion to the great power other than the two of them.

When all was complete, the dark cloud released every inhabitant she had absorbed, while the divine light released his grip on time and signaled a request to leave the Bottomless Pit.

The Darkness obliged, and thus she and God teleported out of the Bottomless Pit in their true forms.


	28. Renovated Purgatory

**Renovated Purgatory**

The two primordial entities, the dark cloud and the divine light, teleported into Purgatory. Both of them, the Darkness and God, remembered their conversation about the human need for purification of their souls in the afterlife, about transferring the monster inhabitants from this realm the two of them had just arrived at to the realm they had just departed from, and about renovating this realm accordingly. The former prepared to express her reflection on the refurbished realm and its places, while the latter manipulated time across all Creation to almost, just almost, a standstill.

"Throughout the land – declares the Eternal – two-thirds shall perish, shall die, and one-third of it shall survive," the more feminine of the two entities chanted, to the obvious surprise of her masculine counterpart, listening to the ancient language the two of them had familiarized themselves with recently.

"That third I will put into the fire," she continued her chant, "and I will smelt them as one smelts silver and test them as one tests gold."

A pause ensued.

"Better late than never, Brother," she cooed.

The dark essence observed Purgatory in greater detail, and wondered why it was comprised now of two distinct places, a place of coldness and a place that resembled a hospital. She also wondered where the purifying fire and brimstone was.

"Why does the new Purgatory have a place of coldness coexisting alongside a place resembling a hospital? Where's the purifying fire and brimstone?" she inquired with curiosity.

"I didn't bother using that archaic and excessively terrifying metaphor, Sis," responded her divine companion, "The place resembling a hospital is a much-needed, contemporary revamp of the old fire-and-brimstone imagery. Nobody wants to go to the hospital because of a potentially painful experience, but it's there as a necessary place for healing. Likewise, this place may be shameful and perhaps even painful for human souls, but it's necessary for their purification."

"Actually, many human souls needing purification are decent enough to skip this purification from illicit desire, anger, hatred, and shortcomings in commission," he added, "but nobody needing purification can avoid the place of coldness, for the purification from indifference, laziness, and shortcomings in omission."

The Darkness expressed appreciation toward God for the latter's renovation.


	29. Realignment Of Spiritual Realms

**Realignment Of Spiritual Realms**

The dark cloud had informed the divine light that she was impressed by what he had done in detail to renovate Purgatory. The Darkness saw that God had divided the refurbished realm into a place of shameful, perhaps painful, yet necessary purification from shortcomings based on commission, on the one hand, and a place of cold, more universal, yet necessary purification from shortcomings based on omission.

Next, the more feminine of the two entities extended her dark essence to cover as much of Purgatory as she could and found all the souls she was after. Once again, she reenacted her past absorption of souls, focusing her absorption on their memories and experiences.

"With this new Purgatory and the creation of the Bottomless Pit," suggested the more feminine of the two entities, "perhaps there could be a further realignment of the spiritual realms."

"You know, Sis," reminisced the more masculine of the two entities, her younger brother, "when my one-time seraph had divine pretensions, he imposed upon the duplicitous king of Hell a new arrangement, allowing the latter to live and even rule, in exchange for seizing control over the flow of human souls and, in effect, downsizing Hell. This new Purgatory could one day realign the flow of human souls in that direction."

"It doesn't have to be now, Brother," suggested the Destroyer, "but ideally, there should be just Heaven for worthy human souls – including purified ones – plus this refurbished Purgatory for human souls needing purification, and mere nothingness for the irredeemably damned human souls."

"There's no need for Hell to be more than just the evil counterpart to Avalon," she added, "since you and I both know the dirty secret of the demons being able to reproduce with one another."

"That would be a fundamental realignment of the spiritual realms," remarked the Creator, "but given my own consideration of a different yet no less fundamental change, I can't dismiss your idea."

"Since you too entertained the notion of a fundamental change," noted the Darkness, "let's deliberate some more on all the details."

God agreed and prepared to deliberate further on the matter.


	30. New Spiritual Abode

**New Spiritual Abode**

Still in Purgatory, the dark cloud and the divine light prepared to deliberate further on their additional, fundamental realignment of the spiritual realms. The Darkness prepared to listen to God's deliberation.

"Enlighten me," invited the more feminine of the two entities.

"Remember that end-of-the-world evangelical group you struck down just before smooching with Dean?" asked the more masculine of the two entities, her younger brother.

"Of course," affirmed the older sister.

"Well, millennia ago, their most important saint wrote to his first followers in the Greek city of Corinth about his vision of being caught up to Heaven, but his vision had lower heavens," narrated the younger brother, "These included the atmosphere and the cosmos beyond the atmosphere, or outer space."

"However, one of the lower heavens was reserved for none other than the first fallen heavenly beings," he continued, "not the demons, but actual heavenly beings who lost the heavenly strife long, long ago."

"Why would an entire lower heaven be reserved for the terrorists, the losers of a measly special-ops insurgency?" snarked the confidante.

She had learned that, contrary to human imagination, Lucifer actually failed to persuade a full third of the original heavenly host to his cause of refusing to love the newly-created humans more than the Creator. He did persuade key heavenly beings to his cause, and together they waged a special-ops insurgency. Because they were critical, the damage they inflicted was grossly disproportionate, comparable to the work of a full third of the original heavenly host, minus them.

"Well, the human imagination still pegs the rebel ranks at a third of the original heavenly host," informed the confidant, "According to the account, the celestial realm was leased to them for their use before their final condemnation in the fire and brimstone."

A brief respite ensued.

"Anyway, Lucifer couldn't cause such mass departure," he noted, "but you could, even if only non-violently."

The Darkness was caught off guard by that.

"Should you decide that I should tell all my heavenly kids about, you know," elaborated God, "then I guarantee you that enough of them will walk out. They, the rebels on Earth who refused to protect the humans, and the preceding special-ops insurgents number a third of the entire heavenly host throughout its history."


	31. Spiritual Tough Love

**Spiritual Tough Love**

The dark cloud was caught off guard by the words of the divine light. The Darkness thought of the tough love she should be giving God in response, all the while continuing to absorb the memories and experiences of all the inhabitants of the renovated Purgatory.

"Since you, not I, brought up the heavenly disclosure subject, I must thank you for making my decision on it much easier, well before we visit Heaven," she teased.

Now, it was her divine companion's turn to be alarmed.

"As of now, Brother, you owe it to your angelic children to give each of them – each – the second apology that you gave to your four immediate sons," she implored, "You may not owe it to them to apologize for withholding the key knowledge, but you do owe it to share with them that woefully belated revelation of yours, about whose image you used to create all men and all women."

"One way or another, they will find out about the image. If they haven't found out yet from any of your four immediate sons, of your four Holy Living Ones, or of your four Valiant Ones, then they will find out by you telling them. If you won't budge and tell them, then I will!" she threatened.

"You may have berated them for merely bowing to the humans instead of loving them more than you, but it is you who owes them the apology," the older sister scolded her younger brother, "for having told them to love the humans more than you, when it is you who should have known that these beings of light could only, at best, bow down before the humans – all the more so had they known about the image back then!"

The younger brother felt pierced by her tough love taking the form of an incisive citation of his own words from the reunion of his four immediate sons.

Meanwhile, the Darkness summoned in her mind more words that were necessary to press further her approach of tough love for God, among other matters.


	32. Expansion And Realignment Completed

**Expansion And Realignment Completed**

The dark cloud was not finished with her incisive words for the divine light. The Darkness summoned religious metaphors and paraphrases to mind, preparing to press further her response to God.

"So what," she retorted, "if my argument, the revelation, and your apology are like the celestial tail that sweeps down a third of the stars of Heaven? So what, if a third of the entire heavenly host, throughout its history, will have departed Heaven by the end of all this to look out for themselves?"

The older sister recalled the end results of her younger brother apologizing to his four immediate sons.

"Brother, right in front of us, your four immediate sons became family again and walked off the chessboard," she reminisced, "so why can't these other angelic children of yours, without overly negative consequences?"

Next, she had in mind some words given to the first non-pagan followers in the Greek city of Ephesus, now preparing to rub verbal salt into her divine companion's emotional wound.

"You would still owe those who respond by walking out non-violently from Heaven – powers of the air, rulers or principalities, authorities, and spiritual forces or hosts in the heavenly places – as titled by that classical saint you mentioned," she taunted.

"You would still owe them a permanent and separate heaven, even if a lower one, for them to call home," she finished her argument, before preparing to summarize their discussion.

A long pause ensued.

"In summary," she broke the silence, "the overall expansion and realignment of the spiritual realms began with the creation of the Bottomless Pit and the renovation of this Purgatory. They should continue with the immediate rendering into nothingness of all irredeemably damned human souls, leaving Hell to be nothing more than the evil counterpart to Avalon. They should culminate in the creation of a permanent and separate heaven, even if a lower one, for all your non-violent angelic walk-outs."

"I just so happen to be finished with the souls, memories, and experiences, of all the inhabitants of this place," she noted, before releasing every soul she had absorbed.

"Now it's my turn to deal with time," the Darkness offered, "while you implement the remaining changes that we've discussed."

God conceded the discussion and proceeded to implement those changes, before the two of them teleported out of Purgatory in their true forms.


	33. Piercing The Veil

**Piercing The Veil**

The two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence, the dark cloud and the divine light, found themselves appearing in the Veil. The Darkness observed the ghost inhabitants and other supernatural visitors, while God exercised what was by now a very familiar grip on time.

"What exactly are the demons and hellhounds doing here still?" questioned the more feminine of the two entities.

"I've honoured all active human contracts with Crossroads Demons," answered the more masculine of the two entities, her younger brother, "These, however, will be the very final ones. When I implemented the changes we discussed, I stripped each Crossroads Demon of all innate abilities and spellcasting knowledge specific to these contracts."

"The very Crossroads Demon who used me won't like this," the older sister said ominously, not being able to smirk given her being in her true form.

"Once Crowley finds out," cautioned the younger brother, "what has happened to Hell's supply of incoming human souls, to his Crossroads Demons, and to himself personally, he may either acknowledge the secret of intra-species reproduction for demons, or up the ante with the wile succubi."

The Destroyer extended her dark essence to cover as much of the Veil as she could, found all the souls she was after, reenacted her past absorption of souls, and focused on absorbing their memories and experiences.

"So, these were the souls used by your human acquaintances to deploy that soul bomb against me?" she quizzed.

"I prefer not to have that unfortunate discussion, Sis," the Creator declined to answer.

"I insist, Brother," demanded the confidante, implying that she knew who gave the humans that idea.

"Actually, it was Sam's idea to kill you and rebalance the omniverse without us, Castiel's traumatically experienced idea to use souls, and Rowena's idea to build the bomb out of them," mentioned the confidant.

"Precisely because of his massively empowered experience, I'm just not sure Castiel could have had the insight to suggest that all on his own," retorted the dark cloud, before a pause ensued.

"You're right," confessed the divine light, "he suggested souls as an alternative to the first possibility floated: 10,000 suns set to supernova."

"Now I wonder just who floated that bright idea," snarked the Darkness.

For his part, God remained silent.


	34. Lifting The Shroud

**Lifting The Shroud**

The dark cloud awaited an admission from the divine light. The Darkness knew that only God could have suggested something so supernaturally numerical as 10,000 suns set to supernova, as a last-ditch means of killing her after their fatal confrontation.

"Well?" snapped the more feminine of the two entities.

"Alright," conceded the more masculine of the two entities, knowing that he could not prevaricate his way out of this one, "After Sam put forward his idea of killing you, all of them, with their own existence on the line, looked at me to lift the proverbial shroud, and put me on the spot. I blurted to them that a lot of light might be your weakness. That figure, which indeed I had suggested, was really low-balling things. However, it did take into account that you were fading away, as well."

A brief respite ensued.

"Either way, you may have regenerated rapidly, but even at that point in time, not so long ago, you still weren't back to your exponentially fullest height of power," he noted.

"Brother, both you and your older, stronger sister know each other's secondary fatal weaknesses while at our exponentially fullest height of power, besides each other," the confidante reminded her divine companion vocally and telepathically. Among the juxtaposed, animated thoughts that pulsed through were that of the Big Bang - releasing greater amounts of light than trillions of hypergiants self-destructing as supernovae – and that of almost-comparable amounts of dark energy clustered together.

"Let there be light," she chanted two ancient words in the original language the two of them had familiarized themselves with recently.

"Let there be light, indeed," she returned to mundane language once more, "Were you trying to give them what could have been false hope?"

"First of all, I wasn't 'cool' with this idea of theirs, as your future, permanent, blissful, and sole refugee had put it," countered the confidant, giving in to the urge to remind his divine companion about her earthly bond.

"Second, I thought that, for the sake of emotions as well as self-preservation, even if the bomb couldn't kill you, you still didn't want him to pull the trigger," he pointed out.

"If… if I could cry in my true form, Brother, I would do so right now," suspired the Darkness.

"I know, Sis," concurred God.


	35. Ghostly Diversity

**Ghostly Diversity**

The dark cloud stopped thinking about her emotional bond with the human responsible for the very pressured start to her reconciliation with the divine light. The Darkness then shifted her focus towards the memories and experiences she was absorbing from the ghost inhabitants in the Veil. God followed suit.

"There's so much one-dimensional diversity in this place," the more feminine of the two entities opined with an oxymoron, "The ones most tied to their original deaths are merely the most benign of the whole lot."

She noticed the sadistic ghosts resisting her efforts.

"Oh, and why are these sadists still around?" she nagged.

"You and I didn't talk about them at all," answered the more masculine of the two entities, her younger brother, "Now that all irredeemably damned human souls will cease to exist upon physical death, the numbers of these leftover sadists will shrink over time."

"I wonder if it is possible for these beings to become Hell's last supply of incoming human souls," the older sister speculated.

"Gosh, even I didn't think about these reserves during our realignment chat, Sis," acknowledged the younger brother, "Well, these ghosts aren't exactly freshly deceased."

"Get it?" he lightened up his voice, "Fresh-ly de-ceased. Seriously, though, I think Crowley could use these folks."

The dark essence then paid attention towards the attention-seeking ghosts.

"My, my, Brother," she pouted, "these prima donnas sure prevent this place from being sadder than it already is."

After feeling their appeasement, she redirected her attention towards feeling for the revenge-based ghosts.

"Couldn't the Reapers substitute their backup curse for the obstinate dying, from becoming these things into ones tied to their original deaths?" she verbalized her pondering.

"Perhaps, or perhaps not," deadpanned her divine companion, "I'm just glad you were more than tough enough, for all those eons, not to degenerate within a much shorter period of time like these have."

Upon finishing with all the ghost inhabitants in the Veil, the dark cloud released every soul she had absorbed.

"Now that we're finished with the easy souls," she cooed, "are you ready to man up to your angels?"

"Well, I think I'm ready, so long as you're ready for the tough souls," replied the divine light, who released his grip on time.

The Darkness and God then teleported out of the Veil in the true forms, and were finally Heaven-bound.


	36. Heavenly Entrance

**Heavenly Entrance**

Together, the two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence, the dark cloud and the divine light, found themselves taking in the sight of Heaven once more. The Darkness took the effort to remember God's complaints about its refurbishment, which she now saw in all its size.

"I'll make this easier for you by going for the souls first, before your moment of reckoning," she offered.

"Well," suspired her younger brother, "here we go again."

The two of them went about their business once more. The more feminine of the two entities extended her dark essence to cover as much of Heaven as she could, found all the souls she was after, reenacted her past absorption of souls, and focused on absorbing their memories and experiences. The more masculine one manipulated time across all Creation to almost, just almost, a standstill. A lengthy silence ensued between the two of them.

"So, that's how the best human characters deal with the concepts of family and friendship," the older sister expressed appreciation of the assimilated memories and experiences on the subject.

"There's no one-size-fits-all answer for either," cautioned the younger brother, "They just… do it."

"Still," declared the confidante, "what I have learned and am learning now is much more intimate than your otherwise impressive knowledge based on observation and abstract knowledge. In all the eons we were separated, why have you never bothered with these intimate insights?"

"Because I was quite the Lord?" retorted the confidant, "Because I was busy ruling Heaven's angels and ushering in one shining, glorious future after another? Because, somehow, I never entertained this possibility when I decided to leave this place?"

"If I were in my human form right now, Brother, I'd roll my eyes at you," the dark cloud shot back, "This experiential approach never crossed your mind, and linked to this was your unwillingness to give your Creation what it needed most: the parenting given to adolescents!"

"Sure, you let your baby find its way," she pressed the issue, "but what can such a baby find, on its own? Nothing but trouble?"

"Maybe, Sis," the divine light prepared to offer an alternative, "this upcoming opportunity to have a new prophetic soundboard, based on audiovisual waking revelations, will open up the possibility of this parenting."

"Better late than never!" exclaimed the Darkness, as she let God contemplate about this possibility.


	37. Soundboard Encounter

**Soundboard Encounter**

The dark cloud refocused her attention towards a particular human soul, while the divine light continued contemplating about the parenting given to adolescents. At last, the Darkness began assimilating the ancient memories and experiences of the one to whom God had communicated prophecy through audiovisual waking revelations, countenance to countenance. At last, the older sister came across the ancient soul of the one with whom her younger brother had a tight platonic friendship, a bromance.

"For the rather exclusive position and mandate he once had," she opined, "his skill set sure was neither charismatic nor oratorical."

"Just like our newest human connection," related her divine companion, "this old man required appropriate Divine intervention in order to convince his audience."

On this, he had made an understatement.

"I feel… temper," mumbled the confidante, "and lots of it. All the undue tests he witnessed and endured personally would break a more typical human being."

"He was such a particular human being," conveyed the confidant, "that there were two kinds of outcomes for those undue tests. The ones he had witnessed, the ones in which my patience had been tested directly, invited more human or natural outcomes, no matter how harsh. The ones he had endured personally, wherein his reputation and mine were on the line, invited nothing less than Divine retribution."

"I had to protect him," he blurted, "That is why, when he instructed his people about these episodes, he didn't tell them not to test my patience. Rather, he told them not to test those with his mandate unduly."

The older sister assimilated her absorbed soul's specific memory and experience of this mess.

"Do not try the Eternal your God, as you did at Massah," chanted the older sister, in the ancient language the two of them had familiarized themselves with recently.

"Well, I hope your prospective prophetic soundboard doesn't have as much temper as this exceptional one does, in Heaven of all places," she cautioned, "All the bliss of his personal heaven now still can't satiate his particular temper from back then? No wonder why that temper did him in when it did!"

After the caution, there was a moment of silence between the Darkness and God.


	38. Tempers And Stiff Necks

**Tempers And Stiff Necks**

The dark cloud had just made an overstatement to the divine light. Not considered by the Darkness were the exceptional times when her absorbed soul was indeed blissful in his personal heaven: those that pertained exclusively to memories of the man being alone with his God, countenance to countenance, receiving audiovisual waking revelations while holding his own in oral conversation.

"Listen, you rebels," chanted the dark essence, once again in the original language.

"Like really?" she asked sarcastically.

"Um, Sis," stuttered her divine companion, "our newest connection, um, does have a similar temper, actually."

"Oh, Brother, you have got to be kidding about this!" exclaimed the older sister.

"Well, I did call that ancient people stiff-necked," the younger brother seemingly divagated.

"What does that have to do with temper?" snapped the confidante.

"Everything," mumbled the confidant, "That includes stiff-necked inclinations and customs regarding temper. This old man was no exception, and neither is our newest connection."

"By the way," he remarked, "just because the former still has quite a temper in his personal heaven doesn't mean he's not having his blissful moments. He gets to replay his moments alone with me, whether somewhere on a mountain, or in a meeting tent whose entrance was guarded by a pillar of cloud."

"As for overall tempers and stiff necks," he lightened up, "this persistence which was once their traumatic weakness was already, during their time, their character strength. The peculiar quality of the intellectual sparring and rebukes coming from select individuals amongst that ancient people was made possible only by this level of temper. Collectively, neither involuntary dispersion to other lands, nor voluntary dispersion, gave them any convincing incentive to assimilate."

"So, of all the prospective people who are dually qualified in theology and psychology, qualified to discuss our… mutual and prolonged thought experiment back home," intimated the dark cloud, "as well as a variety of pet subjects of yours, you just had to select someone with a stubborn knack for temper."

"Pot, meet kettle," quipped the divine light, "Both they and you share the same temper."

"Agh!" cursed the Darkness, to God's glee.


	39. Signs And Portents

**Signs And Portents**

Regarding her absorbed soul, the dark cloud shifted her focus from the mundane from the spectacular, courtesy of the divine light. The Darkness shifted her focus from the soul's personal character to the miracles God had performed through him.

"Regarding the various signs and portents," she referenced, "you just couldn't resist helping yourself to a page from my playbook, couldn't you?"

"With respect to?" inquired her divine companion.

"Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land," chanted the Destroyer, once again the original language.

"Those were your own words," she stated normally.

"Like I told you during our family meeting," answered the Creator, "there were times that required me to step out of my own comfort zone of creation, times that required me to destroy things on quite a scale."

"To say that the antagonist of this particular episode was being a bastard or a prick," he fumed, "would be too generous to his proud reputation."

The dark cloud pivoted her attention towards other signs and portents, other displays of great might and awesome power, sharing her assimilation of the memories and experiences with her divine companion.

"Brother, why weren't these signs and portents recorded?" questioned the Darkness, "Not only was this man privy to every prophecy given to your latter prophets, but he performed more signs and portents that were merely repeated later in history!"

Indeed, this soul had channeled many more signs and portents than were recorded. For example, he threw flour into pots of stew to purge them of harmful contaminants. In other instances, he replenished, miraculously, jars of flour and jugs of oil. Once, he fed his entire community with a single loaf of barley bread and a sheaf of fresh grain. He caused shadows to recede by ten steps or more. He caused rain to pour down and sustain his people. He even resurrected people from the dead.

This soul's opponents were not unaffected. He caused fires to come down from Heaven and consume their targets, including hostile humans. He caused thunder, on one occasion, and an avalanche, on another, to fall upon enemy armies that came upon his people. Once, he was abducted and thrown into a pit with predatory wildlife, only to emerge unscathed.

"So that the people wouldn't worship him, Sis," replied God.


	40. Intelligent Hand Of God

**Intelligent Hand Of God**

Upon learning of the unrecorded signs and portents channeled by her absorbed soul, the dark cloud wondered about how many more surprises the divine light had in store. Regarding this soul, the Darkness assimilated another set of specific memories and related experiences, and, being surprised by them, prepared to discuss these with God.

"So that the people would not worship him?" she repeated, pronouncing slowly.

"Geez, just how easy did you make that prohibition for them to fulfill," she retorted, "when you dangled, right in front of them, an intelligent Hand of God?"

"Pardon me," her younger brother attempted to correct her, "but his staff became a reptile once, and only briefly. Ditto with his elder brother's, which your one-time Uncle Crowley used unsuccessfully against Lucifer."

"Him, Brother," vociferated the dark essence, "Him!"

With her tone, she made it explicit that Crowley and Lucifer were irrelevant to their conversation. Somehow, her divine companion had touched this one-time soundboard and turned him into a walking, talking Hand of God as a result.

"He," the older sister suspired, preparing to chant in the original language, "was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant, since he had spoken with him."

"Oh, that one?" the younger brother recalled upon hearing that citation.

"It was his face that became a Hand of God," he clarified, "not his entire human form."

"Close enough!" snapped the confidante, "Well?"

"What can I say, Sis?" spoke the confidant, "This was my platonic, bromantic partner whom we're talking about here. It was a gift!"

"I wonder what kind of signs and portents," hissed the Destroyer, "your prospective prophetic soundboard will channel, as well as how many of them."

"I also wonder," she continued, "if you'll make his face or a more discreet part of his human form another Hand of God. You really do have horrible taste in men, bromantic or otherwise."

"Maybe his brain?" quipped the Creator.

"You and your ways," reacted the dark cloud.

"For my plans are not your plans, nor are my ways your ways," the divine light countered smugly, chanting in the original language.

"Yet neither your ways nor your plans are above mine," the Darkness reminded God, sharply.


	41. Exceptional Power

**Exceptional Power**

After their heated exchange, the dark cloud returned her attention towards her absorbed soul, which was treasured by the divine light. Now, the Darkness focused on the exceptional power channeled by this one-time soundboard of God.

Truly, concluded the confidante, this human to whom her confidant had communicated prophecy through audiovisual waking revelations, countenance to countenance, was no ordinary Prophet appointed by a lightning strike, or tethered to any of her four primordial nephews. As discussed, he had been tethered to none other than her divine companion himself, his livelihood and reputation protected by the latter's divine intervention.

The more feminine of the two primordial entities appreciated the absorbed soul's limited cosmic awareness rivaling those of any non-primordial angel, with the exception of Metatron the angelic scribe. As she had acknowledged, this human had been privy to the whole picture where the future was concerned, not just the parts and glimpses of the future afforded to later prophets. If, because of the soul of the prophet Donatello Redfield, the dark essence had negated the ability of her younger brother and his four primordial sons to conceal their individual selves from her across all manner of space only, now she negated their power to conceal their individual selves from her across all manner of time. Now, even the younger brother could merely teleport across all manner of space and time, but he could no longer hide from his older, stronger sister.

Despite the semantics presented to her, the Destroyer persisted in her belief that the very essence of the absorbed soul before her had become an intelligent Hand of God. What was more amazing was that this intelligent Hand of God had more in common with any of the Instruments of the Darkness she herself had created recently, than he did with any ordinary Hand of God. Among all of the Creator's Prophets, he alone was capable of using any ordinary Hand of God without being harmed himself, although he set a humble example for his people by not flaunting the power of the most impressive one: a wooden chest covered with gold. As demonstrated by that one tragic display of temper towards his people, this human was able to renew, on his own, the ability to channel divine power.

"Now this is a Hand of God!" the Darkness proclaimed, complimenting God.


	42. Defeating Death Himself

**Defeating Death Himself**

Despite the dark cloud having assimilated the memories and experiences of a human platonic friendship, a bromance, with the divine light, she appreciated that her absorbed soul's exceptional relationship had not been everlasting. The Darkness sympathized with God ending this the way he did.

"Neither you nor he wanted future generations of that people to worship him," she began, "so you used his one tragic display of temper towards the next generation to remove him from the chessboard without ascending him."

The two primordial entities reached out to each other and exchanged thoughts telepathically.

"At least his soul was never reaped," narrated the more masculine of the two entities, "When Reaper after Reaper came to reap him, the mortal, in his temper, chastised each of them for their sense of entitlement to be near him. The situation escalated to the point where I had to unbind Death himself from his subterranean prison. What happened next was amazing! When the mortal finally encountered Death himself, the former seized the latter's scythe supernaturally and came close to extinguishing human death forever!"

"Brother, aren't you confusing the classical religious scholar, Joshua ben Levi, with your one-time soundboard?" inquired the confidante.

"Not at all, Sis," persisted the confidant, "That classical guy's account was of mere folklore. This, this earlier account was for real."

"Anyways, upon seizing the scythe, the mortal did something mischievous," he reminisced playfully, "He deployed a special banishing sigil, the knowledge of which was supposed to be exclusive to his mandate, and banished its intended target himself: Death!"

The Destroyer conveyed her surprise to the Creator. At the same time, a flood of thoughts gushed through her mind. First, she now knew the real reason why her younger brother's secretary had attempted, unsuccessfully, to banish her similarly: the scribe had known at least something about this sigil, regardless of its ineffectiveness against her. Second, she now wondered if her newest connection, her brother's prospective prophetic soundboard, would be empowered with the mainly defensive ability to banish Death's impressive replacement among the Reapers – the other dark cloud which had appeared before them in the park. If so, the Darkness would be very hard-pressed to develop a counter for that other dark cloud to use.

"Two things: I ended this mortal's life personally, and yes, our newest connection will be empowered with this," God pounced on his sister's thoughts.


	43. Divine Farewell

**Divine Farewell**

The dark cloud sorted her unrelated thoughts just as the divine light had pounced on them. In response, the Darkness wanted clear explanations from God.

"Explain yourself, then," she urged him.

"Well," began her divine companion, "on the first matter: just as there were times when I had to grab a page from your playbook, so to speak, this ancient episode was an instance when I had to grab a page from that playbook of Death and his Reapers. For each of Death's claims of exaggerated self-importance, that he could be older than, and reap, yours truly, his banished self and his wings approached me in terror – terror at what had just happened during his confrontation."

"I gave him a second chance," he narrated, "yet in his fear, he spent his time by the sea, by the mountains, and by the valleys. Eventually, I sent him back to his subterranean prison."

"Meanwhile," he continued, "I approached my old man myself. True to himself, he made some last-minute arguments, with his vigor unabated. This time, I rebutted them. At the end of it all, I gave him a kiss on his head."

"Ah," understood the confidante, "and thus you gave your one-time prophetic soundboard a benign kiss of death?"

"If only I could nod, this very moment," affirmed the confidant, her younger brother.

"So, how many other instances did you, personally, do the work of Death and his Reapers?" inquired the older sister.

"Just that one time, actually," answered the younger brother, "After that, I buried his body where no created being could find it."

"Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened!" he declared.

"How profane, Brother," protested the dark cloud, upon hearing that utterance in mundane language.

"Hey, Sis, at least it's inspired by what I had enjoined his immediate successor three times," stressed the younger brother, preparing to chant in the original language, "Be strong and resolute!"

"Apparently, you needed more deathly fortitude than you've acknowledged," the confidante twisted her divine companion's earlier words into a rebuke, "You may have helped yourself to a page from my playbook a number of times, but you simply can't say the same about the deathly playbook."

With this, the Darkness shifted her attention from the absorbed soul, towards God's pending empowerment of their newest connection, his prospective prophetic soundboard.


	44. Divine Confrontation

**Divine Confrontation**

Now, the dark cloud pondered about the divine light's intention to share something extraordinary with their newest connection. The Darkness readied herself to confront God about sharing with one human the ability to banish Death's impressive replacement among the Reapers.

"Now, about enlightening your prospective prophetic soundboard about the special banishing sigil," grimaced the Destroyer, "Why?"

"You know why," the Creator shot back, "You should, by now, if you don't! You shouldn't dismiss the possibility that your very own intelligent creation might one day disperse her essence, primordial Dark Lord-style, whether in a really twisted attempt to achieve the divine condition of mandatory existence, or in a lesser attempt to achieve something we've discussed."

"You shouldn't dismiss the possibility that this beloved dark cloud of yours," he emphasized his sarcasm, "might go about profaning human minds."

"Also, she has merely postponed her intention to reproduce her celestial hybrids, beings of light and of the primordial basis of dark matter," he added, "Like you suggested, they could be the beginning of a superior representation of the balance of light and dark throughout Creation, and they could improve the human gene pool in ways that the Grigori couldn't with the Nephilim. However, you shouldn't dismiss the possibility that she might see any offspring of her offspring, and beyond, as being little more than her ideal worshippers. You mentioned previously her attitude towards her immediate offspring only."

"She with a self-aggrandizing perception of being the Lady and Sovereign," he complained, "over the Reapers yesterday, over the numerous Instruments today, and over the Celestial Consorts and Offspring tomorrow, as well as becoming the Active Divine Feminine, the High Sovereign of High Sovereigns – over most realms outside our home – might one day cross your very own red line and disappoint you."

"Since I don't share your preference of putting beings out of their misery," he emphasized, "and since you'll never let your younger, less powerful brother seal her away, the humans – not my Heavenly creations – need some humble pie on their side, with which to force-feed any imbalances to her ever-ambitious alpha ego."

After contemplating about this, the Darkness expressed her reluctant concession of the argument.

"At least I don't have to chant to you about another prophet of mine's public contest with hundreds of human-sacrificing, so-called 'prophets' of a pagan deity," God expressed his relief.


	45. Within The Heavenly Garden

**Within The Heavenly Garden**

At long last, the two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence could move on to the next part of their business, for the dark cloud was finished with all the souls residing in the very Heaven created by the divine light. Now that the Darkness had assimilated the memories and experiences of billions of souls residing in the terrors of Hell, the Bottomless Pit, the renovated Purgatory, the Veil, and the blissful Heaven, she made sure that not a single soul remained absorbed into her dark aura. As she released the souls, God, meanwhile, released his grip on time.

"So, do you wish to apologize to them as you are now," questioned the more feminine of the two entities, "or do you wish to, literally, man up?"

The more masculine of the two entities, her younger brother, signaled his decision not to remain in his true form, and so the two of them assumed human form once again.

"Where's the best place in Heaven for your moment of reckoning?" inquired Amara.

"I know just the place, Sis," grunted Chuck.

The next moment, the two siblings teleported themselves to the very center of Heaven: the Garden.

"At least the angels had the respect not to alter this part of Heaven for their purposes," opined the older sister.

"I miss Joshua, the gardener," sighed the younger brother.

"You will summon his resurrected form and those of many other deceased angels soon enough, Brother," the confidante gave both a reassurance and a reminder.

"Including the deceased amongst those who preyed upon human souls in the most insidious way possible?" challenged the confidant, "Haven't you told me that their kind was to be hunted down and sent into nothingness?"

"Indeed, I have," the Destroyer remembered with a sinister smile, "and I know exactly how to maintain civility on the parts of those who will emigrate."

Knowing what was being considered, the Creator snapped, "Must I go through the lunacy of resurrecting these particular angelic predators, only for you to obliterate them and their predatory brethren?"

"What you call 'lunacy' is, in fact, killing two birds with one stone," the Darkness countered God, "All the living and resurrected angelic predators, gathered in one place, can be blasted out of existence, while their end will serve as a sharp reminder to those entertaining predatory actions of their own."


	46. Intents And Balancing Power

**Intents And Balancing Power**

A silence befell the two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence, in the human forms of Amara and Chuck. The Darkness had just expressed her desire for God to include deceased angelic predators of humans in the mass angelic resurrection that was forthcoming, as well as the reasoning behind her intent to destroy them and those summoned angelic predators who had not died yet. Her divine companion, for his part, felt compelled to remind himself about the existential balance of creation and destruction, as well as about the very real sanity behind his older sister's destructive intent.

"Brother, you know you'll be expending nowhere near as much creative force on the pending mass resurrection," reassured the confidante, "of all deceased angels, as you did your four eldest sons. This example of creative and destructive forces interacting together is much smaller than you think."

"It's not this creative force I'm worried about, Sis," shrugged the confidant, "As I told you, both directly and indirectly, this place has been through some major internal conflicts recently."

"And as you and I both know," countered the older sister, "you're not as concerned about the strife here as you are about the emotional toll that these apologies of yours take on you."

Her younger brother struggled to muster a response to those words.

"At least you cared enough about the balance of power here," she continued, "You did so by reaching the limits of non-primordial creation, by upgrading four of your non-primordial children into Holy Living Ones, as well as four more into Erelim, or Valiant Ones. You cared enough to leave this lesser balance in their hands."

"I may have," replied the younger brother, "but not all eight of them are here doing just that."

The two siblings remembered that only three Holy Living Ones – Phanuel, Sandalphon, and Israfil – maintained a presence in Heaven. They then remembered that only three Valiant Ones – Zaphkiel, Raguel, and Jehudiel – did the same. They also remembered that the first Holy Living One and the last Valiant One had personal yet legitimate reasons not to do the same.

"Are you suggesting that this place will need a few more upgraded beings at the command posts?" inquired the Darkness.

"Yep," nodded God, "even if they won't be equipped to enhance their upgraded power further."


	47. Upgraded Beings To Be

**Upgraded Beings To Be**

Together in the Garden of Heaven, Amara and Chuck reminded themselves silently, as well as shared their reminders with one another, regarding the enhanced abilities of the four Holy Living Ones and the next four Valiant Ones.

The Darkness and God reminded themselves about those upgraded beings' greater scope of active abilities, in all their detail: full biokinesis, full chronokinesis, cosmic awareness, full electrokinesis, advanced healing, mental manipulation, full photokinesis, comprehensive power negation, rudimentary archangel banishment, full pyrokinesis, shapeshifting, comprehensive smiting, soul reading, full thermokinesis, vessel locking, warding removal, and weather manipulation. As implied by the second of the divine companions, this scope would also belong to those few additional beings yet to be upgraded.

The two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence reminded themselves next about the upgraded beings' greater scope of immunity: against all fairy magic and all witchcraft, against exorcism by those other than hosts and primordial entities, against smiting by angelic medics, and against reality warping by cambions. As implied by the more masculine of the two entities, this scope would also belong to those few additional beings yet to be upgraded.

The two siblings then reminded themselves about the upgraded beings' greater combat resilience: against hellhounds, against Leviathans, and against even pagan deities at their peak power. As implied by the younger kin, this resilience would also be found in those few additional beings yet to be upgraded.

The older sister broke the silence.

"Are you sure these additional upgrades aren't your unplanned reaction towards all those supernatural beings, including your current crop of upgrades, losing so badly," she emphasized teasingly, "in those hypothetical scenarios, to the one created being with greater strength than all your intelligent creations combined?"

"Yes, I'm sure," the younger brother grunted hastily yet with honesty, "that these four upgrades have nothing to do with confronting that beloved dark cloud of yours, the self-promoted Active Divine Feminine within her trinity or triune Divine formulation that includes you and me."

"In that case," stated the Darkness, "These upgrades can wait. I think it's time for you to summon your non-primordial children, active and resurrected."

God nodded and meditated, preparing himself for the means by which he would summon his celestial creations, in accordance with his confidante's wishes.


	48. Garden Of Lifeless Forms

**Garden Of Lifeless Forms**

In the center of the vast Garden of Heaven stood Amara and Chuck, side by side and facing one direction together. The Darkness witnessed the miracle that was transpiring in front of her. Meanwhile, since the garden was vast, God conjured the lifeless but winged forms of all deceased angels and placed them in the garden.

"Given what's occurring, Brother, I'm surprised that the caretakers of this place haven't showed up yet," observed the confidante.

"They'll show up, Sis," guaranteed the confidant, "They'll show up."

Maintaining his focus on the deceased, he proclaimed a loud chant, "I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live again."

This he did in the ancient language that the two of them familiarized themselves with recently. He switched back to their conversational language, saying, "I hereby lay angelic grace upon you, cover you with it, and form it over you."

The lifeless forms pulled themselves together, part to matching part as a human bone would to matching bone. Then, angelic graces swirled upon them, became attached to them, and expanded from them. Despite the motions, there was no breath in the lifeless forms. Their Creator prepared to speak in the ancient language once more.

"Come, o breath, from the four winds," he chanted, "and breathe into these slain, that they may live again."

"Not quite a national revival, is it?" the older sister quipped regarding the metaphorical context of the chanting.

"It doesn't have to be," responded the younger brother, "for this more literal case."

As commanded, the breath entered the vast multitude of lifeless forms, and then they came to life and positioned themselves upright.

Not long after, a few hundred angels entered the garden slowly.

 _These don't look like the caretakers of this place._

 _They're all the remaining fallen angels, no matter how each one of them fell during the span of Heaven's existence._

Not far behind them were the angelic inhabitants of Heaven, each of them with a blade in hand. In their sights was an unusual mix of friendly and hostile beings who had somehow entered the very Garden of Heaven. In the distance, they could not make out who was in the center, yet they could glimpse a slender form and a bearded form.

Sensing this uncertainty, the Darkness oozed a dark aura, while God oozed a light aura.


	49. All Hands On Deck

**All Hands On Deck**

The two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence, in the human forms of Amara and Chuck, were surrounded by a multitude of angels in the Garden of Heaven. The Darkness and God exchanged greetings with them and gave wings back to the wingless before the former noticed something.

 _Your upgrades are over at the corner – six of them, anyway._

 _Like I said, the other two don't maintain a presence in Heaven. Given our fulfilling interaction with them back home, should they be told what is now old news to them?_

 _Brother, what you are about to tell this multitude may be old news to those two now, but the mass reaction to what you have to say won't be old news. If you like, I'll shuffle myself to that same corner and brief them inconspicuously._

 _Whatever floats your boat, Sis._

Thus, the older sister shuffled herself to the corner of the garden where the six upgraded angels were, kept some distance from them, and reached out to the missing two telepathically. Then, appearing before her were the two missing ones, one in the form of a short man with an ostentatious outfit, and the other in the form of a tall man with simpler attire. Together, they exchanged greetings with the slender form who convinced them to come to the garden, before proceeding with the briefing.

"Amara, what's with the multitude?" the tall man, the last Valiant One, asked her on a first name basis.

"God is going to narrate the same big reveal he gave you," answered Amara.

"So why am I here for that nice-to-know?" grumbled the tall one.

"The two of us really need all hands on deck for this one," disclosed the Destroyer.

"But what's with the resurrection of all deceased angels?" questioned the short man, the first Holy Living One, "And what's with all the fallen angels throughout Heaven's history being here?"

"Even they have the right to be apologized to," remarked the slender form, "That said, I did prepare my brother for an adverse reaction from a very significant number within this multitude."

"All hands on deck," the two upgraded angels mused simultaneously, before the ostentatious one continued, "Does that mean another civil war?"

"No," the Darkness reassured them verbally and reminded God telepathically.


	50. Future Defiant Leader

**Future Defiant Leader**

As Amara reminded Chuck telepathically, ideas formed in her mind about the adverse reaction to come. The Darkness prepared to share these with God.

 _Now that we're closer to your reckoning, I have some ideas regarding those who will walk out non-violently._

 _I'm all ears, or head, I should say._

 _They're going to need a defiant one to tip them over towards the mass walkout, yet keep them, as well as their future relations with Heaven, in line afterwards._

 _Another Lucifer?_

 _Yes and no. From the second heaven, this one will have an implicit mandate over a full third of the entire heavenly host throughout its history, as you cautioned me about, not just enough numbers for a disproportionately lethal special-ops insurgency. This being will also be supported, in that mandate, by powers of the air, rulers or principalities, authorities, and spiritual forces or hosts in the heavenly places._

 _That, in a word, would mean a hierarchy._

 _Indeed. So, could one of your additional upgrades be this very individual?_

 _Are you suggesting that there should be a Judas among the upgrades, who will have increased in number from eight to twelve?_

 _Contrary to popular belief, that human merely handed over his leader. The details of the handing over indicate that he was neither the vile betrayer-slash-traitor that you yourself once were, Brother, nor the adorable, wonderful cheat that you remain._

 _Still, Sis…_

 _Like I asked, could one of your additional upgrades be this future defiant leader? Besides, this being and all immediate subordinates should be tasked with ensuring that their followers don't wage skirmishes or outright war against Heaven._

 _I hereby retract the comparison to Lucifer. The more I hear about this one, the more I'm reminded about what Raphael could have become, had he not gone away with the rest of his immediate brothers, to be family again with them._

Together, the Darkness and God reminisced about the outcome that did not come to pass for Raphael.


	51. Princely Yet Presidential Mandate

**Princely Yet Presidential Mandate**

Amara and Chuck reminded themselves about Raphael once more. Both the Darkness and God made comparisons between this being of primordial creation and the future defiant leader of the second heaven.

 _You mean becoming Heaven's masculine President for Life? Brother, I haven't quite forgotten his foolhardy statement, you know, right in front of his eldest brother and his cousin, in addition to you and me._

 _The ideal characteristics are forming in my mind, Sis. Like Lucifer now, this one should be able to nix all personal quarrels with the humans, despite any increased qualms about them after my revelation and apology. Like Raphael in the recent past, this one should have a 'God is dead' attitude. Like Michael for so long, this one should become the strongman of the second heaven, ruling over the powers of the air, the rulers or principalities, the authorities, and the spiritual forces or hosts in the heavenly places, with a celestial fist mightier than any iron fist the humans can cobble together._

 _I hereby correct myself. The full mandate, however implicit, to this individual and all immediate subordinates, should be as follows: to maintain peaceful relations with humanity first and foremost, and to maintain peaceful relations with Heaven second. They can then deal with the fairies, the demons, or what will be the remnants of the pagan crop who call themselves deities, as they please._

 _I know the ideal candidate for this princely yet presidential mandate, but this prospect and three others must be upgraded before my revelation and apology._

 _While we're on that note, could this being have perpetual access to the powers of the original Angel Tablet, if that were to be reassembled?_

 _There can exist only so many non-primordial means of obtaining primordial powers! Didn't I convey this thought to you before?_

 _Just the original Angel Tablet – it's not like I suggested that which enhances each of your eight upgrades further._

 _In that strange case, then, I do think it's possible, but the ideal candidate would have to be smart enough to be much more protective towards this stone tablet, as there are no spares. Whether by warding off close proximity to it, storing it in some pocket dimension or pocket universe, or whatever, this individual needs to take really good care of it._

The Darkness and God then reached final consensus.


	52. Electric Ones

**Electric Ones**

Amara finished her briefing of the upgraded angels before shuffling herself back to her place in the center of the Garden of Heaven, while Chuck repaired the original Angel Tablet with mere thoughts. The Darkness shuffled back by cutting through the spontaneous chatter among the angels present, while God looked on.

 _What's with all this noise, Brother?_

 _Remember our last encounter with these angels, Sis?_

 _Who could forget? You shrunk the kids and the entirety of Heaven into something that could fit my hand! At my encouragement, you then let them know why you left them, apologized for how you left them, and gave them a proper goodbye this time around. You also snuck in a complaint to them about Heaven's design being too figurative, artistically speaking._

 _And who could forget them getting under your nerves by putting you on the receiving end of prayer for the very first time?_

 _Ugh!_

 _Anyway, the inhabitants of Heaven, as of that point in time, are just about finished briefing everyone else, including all the fallen angels throughout Heaven's history, about all the details of our encounter with them back in our home. It really is a priceless display of all-out angelic kinship, not seen since before the creation of humanity! Oh, well, I should get their attention now and upgrade the select four into Hashmallim, or Electric Ones._

The Creator turned his attention towards his angelic crowd.

"Children!" he shouted, above the chatter. The angels turned their attention towards him and his sister.

"It has come to my attention," he began, "that the indefinite absence of all four of your eldest brothers may have disturbed the balance of power throughout angel-kind."

"Over at that corner," he gestured to the corner where the upgraded angels were, "stand a select group of Holy Living Ones and Valiant Ones. They have been upgraded into such in order to curb that disturbance, but as you all know, the eight of them do not have the quorum to judge in the absence of your four eldest kin."

"Let there be the Electric Ones!" he proclaimed, stretching his arms.

Four angels were levitated forward, though not of their own motions, and were upgraded as they went. Not long after, the angelic crowd beheld the four Electric Ones in front of them: Camael, Raziel, Tzadkiel, and Uriel.

The Darkness and God beheld the four, as well.


	53. Down Memory Lane

**Down Memory Lane**

In the center of the vast Garden of Heaven stood Amara and Chuck, as well as the angels Camael, Raziel, Tzadkiel, and Uriel. Unbeknownst to the four Electric Ones, the Darkness sensed God just having finished with the original Angel Tablet, reassembling it and placing it the second heaven.

"God," uttered the fourth Electric One, "or should I call you Chuck?"

His father felt deeply that his creation had not regained any lost affection towards him, despite the resurrection and upgrade.

"Chuck's fine," he deadpanned, knowing that his son would not acknowledge him as his father anytime soon.

"Is this your apologetic attempt to make up for not caring about what we did in your absence?" sneered the former angelic specialist. His three upgraded siblings looked at him aghast, then tried to convince him to be more respectful, but to no avail.

His Creator resisted the urge to call him out, there and then, for his duplicity just before the averted Apocalypse. The former would allow the latter to proclaim publicly his hidden resentment towards humanity, and so much more.

"This power boost," described Uriel, "won't be enough to maintain this… clan reunion."

It was all too obvious to his father that this upgraded angel was adamant about not describing the very ahistorical reunion in the garden as a family one. At least the latter was more vocal than Raphael had been.

"You're right. Something else might," suggested Chuck, "In the meantime, you were onto something with your question. We're together again because I have some things to tell all of you."

In response, murmurs spread throughout the garden, as angels expressed curiosity to one another about what they were about to be told.

"Since all of you have already been informed of why I left, of my apology to you for how I left, and of my proper goodbye recently," he reminded them, "I'd like us to go down memory lane, back to the creation of humanity."

"For those of you who were around back then, do you remember the words I declared which led to humanity's creation?" he asked the many angels who were in existence during that time.

"'Let us make man in our image,'" those angels chanted loudly, in unison and in the ancient language used originally for those words.

The Darkness nodded to them, as God prepared to continue.


	54. Utter Wreck And Noisy

**Utter Wreck And Noisy**

While Amara acknowledged the mass angelic response throughout the Garden of Heaven, Chuck noticed that Uriel was not among those who responded. The attention of the Darkness was nudged by God towards this detail.

"Here came the mudmonkeys," scoffed the fourth Electric One. Again, his three upgraded siblings nudged him to be more respectful, but to no avail.

"Whose image did you have in mind?" the Creator challenged.

"Yours and ours," those angels who existed back then responded in unison.

"I don't see how the whining, puking larvae resemble us, the strong and the beautiful," complained the former angelic specialist.

 _Gee, Sis, I wonder how come I've heard similar insults before, closer to home?_

 _You mean Lucifer?_

 _Nah, he deemed the humans to be flawed abortions and used insults more along those lines. Let's just say that a cranky somebody just had to call them an utter wreck and noisy._

 _But those are true, Brother._

 _You, out of everybody, just had to call them those, and then had to share those two descriptions with me during our family meeting!_

 _Now look who's cranky? My two descriptions and sharing of them happened before your slip-up on the image and my chewing you out in response. Guess what? After all that, I was right on both counts, and from what I can tell, things never seem to change._

 _You're still a crank for calling them noisy._

 _As the humans say: man up!_

 _Well, you also had to call the humans ugly, despite your pining for one of them to be in your permanent, blissful refuge!_

 _Again, that description and sharing of that happened before your slip-up and my response. For this count, I can afford to stand corrected._

 _Well…_

 _Well, I strongly suggest you refocus your attention towards this insubordinate!_

"You're right," Chuck addressed the resentful Uriel, "they don't resemble you."

Throughout the garden, astonishment befell the countenances of a great many angels that were present.

The Darkness was but mere moments away from the realization of her tough love towards her divine companion.

"In the image of God and the Darkness did I create each of them, whether male or female," God revealed, to the stupefaction of the angels.


	55. In The Dual Image

**In The Dual Image**

At long last, the two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence, in the human forms of Amara and Chuck, beheld the multitude of consternated angels surrounding their position in the center of the vast Garden of Heaven. At long last, the Darkness was starting to take in the mass justice that God was doing to the dual image underpinning humanity.

 _As much as your most cherished creations remain an utter wreck and noisy, do remember that, in a way, they also remain as much my children as they do yours._

 _Now let's see if any of the dissenting angels will present their dissent from the angle of humanity disappointing me with their historical tragedies, rather than from the angle of celestial speciesism or supremacism._

"Despite my conflicts with my almost-fallen sister up until that point," the more masculine of the two entities began, "I desired to realize a cherished representation of the fundamental balance of light and dark throughout Creation."

His angelic audience listened acutely, while the Holy Living Ones and the Valiant Ones merely observed that audience from their own corner.

"With all due respect, you beings of light were always incapable of being this representation," he humbled them.

"Thus, I thought of a particular image as a tribute," he narrated, "and I made it a reality."

Expressions of resentment simmered throughout the angelic audience.

"I will not apologize for concealing this key knowledge," he stated matter-of-factly, preparing to chant in the ancient language that he re-familiarized himself with recently, "Concealed acts concern the Eternal."

Many angels in the audience shrugged upon hearing that chant, a greater number of them for the first time.

"However, I am sorry for not having known that you beings of light could only, at best, bow down before the humans," he expressed regretfully, "I apologize for having chided you wrongly for your limited response, and for having told you to love them more than me in the first place."

The resentment throughout the angelic audience only grew, and the four Electric Ones at the front felt it for different reasons.

"The power boost and this apology are still not enough to maintain this… clan reunion," Uriel responded dismissively, "for you stopped being our father, if you ever were, the moment you created your favourites!"

The Darkness looked on as God prepared to cede the floor to this defiant being.


	56. Heavenly Political Rally

**Heavenly Political Rally**

As Amara observed those who would only be the first wave of resentful ones within the angelic audience, Chuck stepped back from where he stood. The Darkness followed suit, as God made room for Uriel to address both him and the angelic audience.

"Chuck," the former angelic specialist called contemptuously, "if I had known all this back then, I would have refused to bow down to your despicable favourites!"

"Tell me," he demanded, "why you have not brought our four eldest brothers here. Are you too much of a coward to apologize to them?"

While the other Electric Ones shook their heads, the Creator maintained the mental fortitude to not push this rebel telekinetically or do worse to him. In his time alone would he inform his angelic creations about his four eldest sons, but not before. Meanwhile, the fourth Electric One turned to his brethren.

"For all those alive back then, remember one of those brothers! He was radiant and strong in character," he proclaimed, "for he had the bravery to take this hack's punishment just for defending us. In all my existence, my biggest mistake was not believing in him until it was all too late!"

"But Lucifer was evil incarnate!" proclaimed many in the audience, even among those who did not rebel the first time around.

"Be unafraid!" Uriel encouraged, "He merely questioned our maker's foolish priorities, and was cast out of Heaven for…"

Chuck cut him off.

"I wouldn't call founding the celestial equivalent of the Sicarii, Al-Hashshashin, various Irish groups for nationalist terrorism, and many jihadist groups for religious terrorism, 'merely questioning' my priorities," he interrupted.

"I wouldn't call waging a special-ops insurgency along those lines, inflicting damage to Heaven in gross disproportion to their very small numbers, 'merely questioning' my priorities," he added.

"Those are minor details, brethren," the former angelic specialist quipped dismissively while maintaining his focus upon the audience, "Heaven was not the greatest creation! We beings of light were! We were, until we gave respect to the oversized rats!"

"We were," he sighed, "until we let Heaven open its doors to those who have lots of problems, including drug dealers and rapists!"

The Darkness gave her brother a look of curiosity.

 _He's ignoring me, Sis, and continuing with his contemporary, heavenly political rally speech._

"One-time drug dealers and rapists," God clarified.


	57. President For Life

**President For Life**

Together, Amara and Chuck were amazed at what had become of the angelic gathering. Before the Darkness and God, a political rally was transpiring, courtesy of the defiant Uriel.

"Behold Little Chuck, our second-rate maker," the orator declared mockingly, "having decided that his sister deserved a shoddy tribute after she was locked away! That lunatic's not a war hero!"

Many in the angelic audience nodded in agreement, while the dark essence before them was surprisingly not angry.

 _Well, Brother, it looks like these dissenters won't express concerns about humanity from my intricate perspective, or even from the imperfect yet family perspective of your one-time favourite son._

 _It's unfortunate that they're doubling down on their limited celestial speciesism or supremacism._

"As for the primate low-lives," continued the former angelic specialist, "I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of their kind entering Heaven, as well as remaining in Heaven!"

Many angels expressed concurrence.

"In the name of the greatest beings that have existed throughout Creation, I say let's keep a heavenly distance from their kind now, a heavenly distance from their kind tomorrow, and a heavenly distance from their kind forever!" he shouted to many cheers.

 _How repugnant!_

 _I assure you, Sis, that it won't happen to this Heaven. These celestial segregationists will have their distinct, segregated heaven soon enough._

"As for our heavenly kind," the fourth Electric One moved on, "Angel-kind needs a truly great leader now. When Chuck made us, I thought he'd be a great spirit. He was vibrant. Since then, he has proven to be anything but a truly great leader, and many of you have come to that realization."

"You have grown old," many angels mocked their maker, derisively chanting in the same ancient language that he chanted to them, "and your sons have not followed your ways."

"Angel-kind doesn't need a deadbeat divine sovereign!" exclaimed Uriel, "Angel-kind needs a President for Life!"

Those sympathetic to him affirmed openly.

The Creator remembered when an entire human community rejected him as their sovereign. Demanded of him was the anointment of a human sovereign instead.

The Darkness, for her part, learned about that account. Ever beside her, God remembered his warning for that community.


	58. Rebellious Angelic Nomination

**Rebellious Angelic Nomination**

Amara was relieved upon sensing that none of Chuck's more powerful angelic upgrades, the Holy Living Ones and the Valiant Ones, were persuaded in the slightest by the dissent transpiring in front of them. The Darkness returned her attention to the dissenters, while God remembered the words of one of his early prophets for the community that desired to have a human sovereign instead of a divine one.

"This will be the practice of the President for Life who will rule over those of you who follow him," the latter paraphrased to begin his caution for the dissenters.

"He will draft you and appoint you as his conscripts," he warned to many a deaf ear, "He will take from among your brethren and appoint them as his powers of the air, rulers or principalities, authorities, and spiritual forces or hosts in the heavenly places. He will rule you with a celestial fist mightier than any iron fist that my most cherished creations can cobble together! He will put you to work for him as his janissaries, and you shall become his devsirme!"

 _Devsirme?_

 _Historically, Sis, the devsirme system was a very odd form of pre-industrial slavery, in which the slaves of the state were paid well and could be found amongst the highest military and civilian positions of the state, but by law were still slaves to the absolute ruler._

 _I wonder, Brother, if a connection can be made between the devsirme system and the surrender theology you harped about back home._

 _Made by either of us, or made opportunistically by that beloved dark cloud of yours, hmm?_

"The day will come," he chanted in the ancient language just chanted to him mockingly, "when you cry out because of the sovereign whom you yourselves have chosen; and the Eternal will not answer you on that day."

"Enough of that!" Uriel responded dismissively, before feeling a connection to a very distant and unknown source of power, power that then surged through him.

"Brethren," he addressed his sympathizers, "I just felt a connection to a great faraway power outside Heaven. It seems that Lucifer will be unavailable to lead us."

"Fear not!" he exhorted, "I humbly nominate myself for the heavenly position of President for Life. Together, we will make angel-kind great again!"

The Darkness and God rolled their eyes at the rebellious orator.


	59. Rebellious Angelic Gathering

**Rebellious Angelic Gathering**

Amara and Chuck witnessed Uriel move away from his fellow Electric Ones and closer to where the greatest concentration of his sympathizers stood. For her part, the Darkness reached out telepathically to the Holy Living Ones and Valiant Ones, as God looked on.

Just before the four Electric Ones were established, the dark essence informed the eight preceding, more powerful angelic upgrades about the power that now surged through Uriel, the power from the reassembled Angel Tablet that had been placed by her divine companion in the second heaven. She also briefed them about other related matters that she had discussed with her younger brother telepathically. Now, she was telling them to remain where they were for the moment.

Meanwhile, the younger brother witnessed the rebellious orator gather his sympathizers around him, slowly but surely. First and foremost among those consolidating around him were those who supported Lucifer originally, including the fallen ones among the Seraphim. Next were Araqiel, Batariel, Kokabiel, Shamsiel, Tamiel, and all the other Grigori, the hundreds who were sent to Earth to protect the humans, only to refuse to do so.

"We must uphold the existence of our kind and a future for new angels!" agitated Uriel.

Many more were moving towards him and muttered agreement with his sentiments. Eventually one-third of the entire heavenly host throughout its history consolidated around him.

 _How much longer shall that wicked community keep muttering against me? Very well, I have heeded the incessant muttering…_

 _Brother, please stop the mental chanting._

"Angel power!" the former angelic specialist shouted with a salute, to which those gathered around him reciprocated as committed supporters.

The Creator decided to interrupt their political rally.

"Excuse me, all," he blurted, "but you are not going to have your rebellious way with this Heaven!"

"Now look who is enabling heavenly civil war yet again," the fourth Electric One shot back.

Upon this, his supporters grasped the hilts of their weapons, ready to draw them.

"Actually, I'm giving you different options," offered Chuck, "You can either enable heavenly civil war yourselves, right here, or you can emigrate to a separate and permanent heavenly realm I've made just for you celestial republicans."

The rebellious angels were shocked by that offer and took it in slowly. The Darkness saw all of that, as well, as God showed them a visual representation of the second heaven.


	60. Second Heaven As Republic

**Second Heaven As Republic**

Ever beside Amara, Chuck continued to show the insubordinate ones, and even the other two-thirds of the entire heavenly host throughout its history, a visual representation of the second heaven. The Darkness observed God's rebellious angels scrutinize, in skeptical detail, the separate and permanent realm that was theirs to accept. After the scrutiny, Uriel and his followers gave the two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence the look of someone asking why.

The more masculine of the two entities, knowing what they wanted to ask, merely said, "The creation of this true 'Republic of Heaven' wasn't my original idea, and neither was my apology."

As the rebellious orator and his fellow celestial republicans nodded in agreement, their father continued, "You've got this 'lunatic' beside me to thank."

The former angelic specialist pondered about related matters.

"And what about Lucifer?" he asked, "If those who fell with him originally get to emigrate to this surprisingly impressive place, why can't he?"

The Creator responded by addressing both the one-third and the two-thirds.

"Children," he began his response, "about the indefinite absence of all four of your eldest brothers: they have removed themselves from the chessboard and are journeying throughout the omniverse, but as family again. Where they wish to settle after their catching up is up to them. Be assured that, with regards to what I've told you, I've told them already."

Once the angelic audience took his words in, the Destroyer gazed at the rebellious angels.

"Before you accept," she spoke to them, "this 'lunatic' would like to caution you not to abuse the independence given you."

Her dark essence then released a tenebrous smoke that darkened the Garden of Heaven by spreading throughout its upper limits. Once darkened, the garden itself trembled violently.

With a thunderous voice, she then mandated Uriel and his followers, saying, "I am the Darkness, the existence and nothingness before all being, the Destroyer above all being, the one who enabled both your resurrection and your independence."

"You shall not deviate from peaceful relations with every single one of those made in the image of the Darkness and God," she demanded.

"You shall not deviate from peaceful relations with this Heaven," she enjoined.

The Darkness spoke those instructions, those and no more, to the celestial republicans, who had moved back a distance.

God was mildly amused at his older sister's unoriginal theatrics.


	61. Rebellious Acceptance

**Rebellious Acceptance**

Having pronounced her three-part mandate to those bound for the second heaven, Amara focused her attention upon a few of the Grigori, while Chuck reminded himself about why she had them in her sights. These were all those who had ever preyed upon human souls in the most insidious way possible, and the Darkness was about to hold them to account personally, without the use of a dark intermediary. For his part, God was already looking forward to the moment Uriel and his followers would simply depart Heaven and settle in the separate and permanent realm that was theirs to accept.

"Well," suspired the most powerful entity in existence, "I see you're not giving your mandate the utmost respect it deserves."

The rebellious angels were perplexed at her words, wondering what additional respect their mandate truly deserved.

"Among you stand some rather insidious beings," pointed out the source of the tenebrous smoke still engulfing the Garden of Heaven, "Beings who not only refused to protect the humans while on their world, but who also fed upon their souls. Apparently, these predators have the gall to not be fearful enough of the one who has been attributed as the all-power beyond all being."

Indeed, the likes of Tamiel were not terrified about being in the presence of one who was older and stronger than their Creator himself.

"Beware, all of you!" Amara called upon all the angels in the garden, "The mandate hereby requires… an effective demonstration or two of the consequence of deviation."

Darkly terror spread rapidly, from one being of light to another.

The next moment, invisible yet destructive power emanated from the dark essence and obliterated every angelic predator who ever existed, including Tamiel.

The remaining celestial republicans looked over their shoulder to note what had just happened, with looks of continued terror upon their countenances. Not wanting to fall victim to a second demonstration, they went on their knees, expressed their acceptance of the mandate given them, appealed to the Destroyer for their continued existence, and pleaded with her to teleport them instantly to their new realm.

While regarding inwardly their desperate prayers with aversion, the Darkness accepted their pleas and teleported all but Uriel to the common area of the second heaven, and him to his personal space therein, before feeling a sense of vindication for her approach of tough love for God.


	62. From Smoke To Smoke

**From Smoke To Smoke**

In the center of the Garden of Heaven, Amara gathered the tenebrous smoke back to her dark essence, having realized all her goals for the journey to Hell, the Bottomless Pit, the renovated Purgatory, the Veil, and the blissful Heaven itself. As she did so, Chuck conveyed to her that he was giving considerable thought to what he would do next. The Darkness understood God's concerns about the vacuum left behind by the departure of one-third of the entire heavenly host throughout its history, and about the combined adequacy of Camael, Raziel, and Tzadkiel without a fourth Electric One and perhaps more.

 _Thus, Brother, did the Darkness pull and push down a third of the stars of Heaven. I must say that I'm getting the hang out of all this tough love, all these tough pills for you to swallow!_

 _Right, another episode of me doing what you told me to do, doing what you wanted…_

 _Don't exaggerate. You yourself admitted that you screwed up with aspects of Creation. I'm simply making you face entire scopes of consequences regarding those, not just partial ones. That said, I'm now available to help you complete what remains of your business here in Heaven._

 _Thanks, Sis. Hey, since you're true primordial chaos, remember the trip during our family meeting to the Big Bang many billions of years ago?_

 _Of course. It's not hard to remember where and when we teleported to._

 _Recall what I had confided to you about the chaos required to bring it about?_

 _Yes. You played dice with the omniverse during its creation. You also played dice with human events when you felt the urge to. Why do you ask?_

 _I'm thinking about playing dice again, now to fill Uriel's shoes this side of Heaven._

 _I see you're thinking that nobody is more qualified than I to provide the right kind of entropy to the motion of your dice._

 _If you please._

The confidante found herself giving randomness to the motion of a substance that emanated from her divine companion: a white smoke of anointment. The substance spread throughout the upper limits of the garden, then probed those within the remaining angelic audience. Next, the Darkness and God witnessed the smoke consolidate around its anointed one and upgrade this angel into another Electric One: none other than the one reborn as Anna Milton.


	63. Comparative Accomplishments

**Comparative Accomplishments**

The two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence, in the human forms of Amara and Chuck, observed the white smoke of anointment levitate Anna towards them, while putting the finishing touches of the angelic upgrade. With the Darkness at his side, God beheld his second attempt at establishing a fourth Electric One for heavenly matters.

"We meet at last," began the rogue angel, "o mysterious, incomprehensible Father and Aunt."

Her father appreciated the sarcastic greeting, having re-familiarized himself with her background, while her aunt went along and just nodded.

"Anna, I know that I may not be necessarily on good terms with you," her father shared to her while gathering the white smoke back to himself, "but there is something in your so-called 'fall' that your siblings here could learn from."

"Why did you have to bring me back here of all places?" complained the former human, "I just want to be among those whom you've created in the image of your sister and yourself! The loyalty, the forgiveness, the love…"

"Can be found amongst your angelic siblings, also," interrupted her maker.

"And what about the sweet chocolate cake? The home run sex?" the Electric One pressed on.

"What? With Dean?" snapped Chuck, much to Amara's astonishment.

 _Did she…_

 _Yes, Sis, she got to that one soul whom you're pining to become the permanent, blissful refuge for. She has a comparatively higher score than you on that front!_

 _Brother, I'm feeling that sensation again._

 _Envy? You're envious of what she's accomplished? You're holding back from snapping her out of existence? Don't worry, what I'll say next will drive home…_

"With that hunter, only to travel back through time later on and try desperately to prevent him and his brother from being born?" resumed the Creator.

"I was trying to prevent that bloody Apocalypse you washed your deadbeat hands of," Anna expressed her frustration, "only for that puritan authoritarian of yours to incinerate me at first sight!"

 _At least you didn't pontificate to your creation here about angels with their graces not being allowed to have their way with human mates._

 _She's a very personal angel. I have to engage her from a very personal angle, no pun intended._

After that telepathic exchange, the Darkness overcame her murderous temptation regarding her rogue niece, yet made it very clear to God that a forthright feminine discussion was in order.


	64. Attraction And Codependency

**Attraction And Codependency**

Without gesturing, Amara stopped the flow of time in the Garden of Heaven, such that only she, Chuck, and Anna remained unaffected. The Darkness moved ahead of God, towards the rogue angel, before circling around her.

An idea formed in the mind of the Destroyer. She wanted this Electric One to stay away from Dean forevermore, yet did not wish to convey any sense of envy about her sensual interaction with that human.

"You know," cooed the dark essence, "you may have had your way with Dean, but you just cannot say that you loved him."

"Says you!" snapped her niece.

"That's right," answered the aunt, "says me!"

She then recalled a complaint her younger brother shared with her: telling his scribe that Sam did not care about Creation overall, that he wanted his brother back and the Mark removed from him. Now, she intended to put a positive spin on the human intentions leading to her release.

"Sam cared for him more than you ever did," she narrated, "so much so that, less than two years ago, he just wanted some divinely made mark to be removed from his older brother; let the consequences be damned!"

 _Since when was sibling codependency a good thing, Sis? Aren't we meeting our newest connection to talk our case through?_

 _I have forgotten neither him nor that, Brother, much less our… mutual and prolonged thought experiment back home. For now, I'm using Sam's case for the sake of argument._

The look on Anna's face turned into one of heartbreak, yet Amara refrained from providing more details. Despite what had occurred so far during the gathering in the garden, the details of the latter's darkly release had somehow remained unknown to almost all the angels present.

"You shall avoid all interaction with Dean's life and bloodlines," commanded the aunt, "Is that clear?"

Upon hearing this command, the niece could no longer contain her heartbreak, and thus shed tears. Not only was she being prohibited from interacting with this particular attraction of hers, but she was being prohibited from interacting with his ancestors and his descendants.

"Is that clear?" the dark essence repeated, demandingly.

"I understand," the rogue angel declared very reluctantly and nodded, too grieved to question her aunt's protective sentiments towards the hunter.

The Darkness walked back to God's side once again and resumed the flow of time.


	65. Additional Angelic Types

**Additional Angelic Types**

As Amara walked back to Chuck's side, she noticed he was brooding. Curiosity settled upon the Darkness, as she perceived God being concerned about broader heavenly affairs. The two siblings exchanged thoughts telepathically.

 _Penny for your thoughts?_

 _You may have bragged about pulling and pushing down a third of my children towards their second heaven, but even you appreciate the angelic gap this side of Heaven!_

 _I know where you're going with your line of thinking, Brother. You're going for even more upgrades, aren't you?_

 _Where I can't plug the holes with quantity, I've got to do so with quality, Sis. Uriel and his inner circle will surely go for this with their ranks! Elsewhere, and as not gone unnoticed by either of us, that beloved dark cloud of yours realized a similar situation with her disgruntled Reapers. Very promptly did she upgrade ten of them into her ten Sefirot, prefiguring my four Holy Living Ones, my four Valiant Ones, and now my four Electric Ones. She then upgraded many dozens more into Dark Watchers, brazenly bringing about her equivalent of the Seraphim, and in greater numbers than they._

 _My, just who is really envious now?_

 _With the celestial balance of power now, I could upgrade quite a bit more angels into Seraphim – and I will – but that type is too much yet too little in between an Electric One and a regular angel. There should be command heavyweights and Grigori replacements sandwiching the Seraphim. There should also be four types below regular angels, with one or more of them being reproductive. Heck, because Hell has been reduced to little more than the evil counterpart to Avalon, one of those four should be comparable to a demon or a fairy!_

 _Might you have inspiring names for these angelic types?_

 _I do, actually. For the command heavyweights, I'll expand the existing Shinanim, or Fiery Ones. For the Grigori replacements, I have in mind the Tarshishim, or Brilliant Ones. For the types just below a regular angel, I have in mind the Elyonim, Elim, and Bene Elim. For the new creations on the frontlines against demon or fairy attacks, I have in mind the Ishim – Supernal Men, but not related at all to the humans._

The Darkness expressed tacit approval toward God's intent to bring into existence these additional angelic types before the end of their heavenly visit.

* * *

 _Author's Note: The Elyonim are the Upper Ones, the Elim are the Strong Ones, and the Bene Elim are the Children of the Strong Ones._


	66. Commonwealth Of Heaven

**Commonwealth Of Heaven**

Amara provided emotional support to Chuck, as he resolved to expand the ranks of Heaven. With the Darkness at his side, God prepared to expand the number of Fiery Ones and Seraphim, replace the wayward Grigori and more with the Brilliant Ones, and bring into existence the Upper Ones, Strong Ones, Children of the Strong Ones, and Supernal Men.

"Children!" he shouted to the angels' attention.

"The Electric Ones are four, as they should be," he began, "yet this Commonwealth of Heaven has a deficit of celestial beings."

 _Commonwealth of Heaven?_

 _Since the independents will surely call their realm the Republic of Heaven, that derogatory description of ours should no longer apply to this place._

"Commonwealth?" asked Anna, lined up with the other Electric Ones, "That's a nice label for us to govern ourselves by in your ever-indefinite absence."

"Please, don't be repeat disappointments," quipped the Creator, "That said, you'll need hosts of lesser, reproductive, celestial creations of mine to handle your assorted problems with demons, fairies, self-declared deities of the pagan type, witches, and monsters. You'll need more celestial beings below the regular angels. You'll need celestial beings to replace the Grigori walk-outs and then some. You'll need well-rounded individuals to expand the number of Seraphim. You'll need more of the powerful heavyweights in between them and the Holy Living Ones, Valiant Ones, and Electric Ones."

"Anna, I think you'll like having your way with those of the first group," he stated suggestively, "since they won't be your literal siblings."

A slight smile came upon the Electric One's face, after she took in this divine consolation.

Chuck went to work in the very presence of the angels in the Garden of Heaven. The latter sensed that, just outside, the three announced ranks of lower angels developed, in both masculine and feminine incarnations. Those who were upgraded into Brilliant Ones outnumbered, multiplicatively, all Grigori who ever existed. The oldest Seraphim, Seraphiel and Sippur, became overjoyed when their ranks reached the hundreds. Last, but not least, Hannah, Kepharel, Selaphiel, Zachariah, Akatriel-Yah, Cecitiel, Marmoniel, Oriphiel, Pravuel, Rikbiel, Sabriel, Sahaquiel, Uziel, Yahoel, Yefefiah, Zagzagel, and over four dozen other proven angelic leaders were upgraded to join four existing Fiery Ones: Barachiel, Hofniel, Jerahmeel, and Sariel.

The Darkness herself could not help but be impressed with God's majestic work of heavenly creation unfolding once more before her sight.

* * *

 _Author's Note: To recap, the full angelic hierarchy of the human-friendly Commonwealth of Heaven now consists officially of:_

 _The four absent Archangels_ _–_ _Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, and Gabriel;_

 _The four Holy Living Ones (Chayot Ha Kodesh)_ _–_ _a resurrected Metatron, Phanuel, Sandalphon, and Israfil;_

 _The four Valiant Ones (Erelim)_ _–_ _Zaphkiel, Raguel, Jehudiel, and the one and only Castiel;_

 _The four Electric Ones (Hashmallim)_ _–_ _Camael, Raziel, Tzadkiel, and the one and only Anna;_

 _The seventy or so Fiery Ones (Shinanim) – Barachiel, Hofniel, Jerahmeel, and Sariel, plus the one and only Hannah, Kepharel, Selaphiel, and the one and only Zachariah, plus Akatriel-Yah, Cecitiel, Marmoniel, Oriphiel, Pravuel, Rikbiel, Sabriel, Sahaquiel, Uziel, Yahoel, Yefefiah, Zagzagel, and the rest_ _;_

 _The hundreds-numbered Seraphim_ _–_ _Seraphiel, Sippur, and the rest;_

 _The thousands-numbered Brilliant Ones (Tarshishim);_

 _The millions-numbered regular Angels;_

 _The millions-numbered Upper Ones (Elyonim);_

 _The millions-numbered Strong Ones (Elim);_

 _The millions-numbered Children of the Strong Ones (Bene Elim);_

 _The millions-numbered Cherubim organized into a few classes; and_

 _The millions-numbered Supernal Men (Ishim)._

 _This hierarchy is meant to phase out the recurring appearances of the regular angels, while restoring them to their Season 4 glory, including wings and teleportation. In their usual place, for cannon fodder purposes, would be the Ishim and maybe the Bene Elim. Meanwhile, four older angels of a missing type, the Wheels (Ophanim), will make an appearance at some point in the fanfic series: Sarathiel, Sidriel, Zephaniel, and Zophiel._

 _Also, the full angelic hierarchy of the independent Republic of Heaven is under development._


	67. Questioning And Heavy Farewells

**Questioning And Heavy Farewells**

Amara noticed Chuck calling one of the Fiery Ones off to a side in the Garden of Heaven. As the Darkness was still taking in the sight of all the angelic upgrades and creations, God could no longer put off an important discussion with Hannah.

"Father, what you've done is nothing short of amazing," complimented the one-time leader of Heaven.

"I've seen and heard pretty good things about you, Hannah," reciprocated the father, "You prioritized the emotional well-being of your possessed host above whatever agenda you had. It's not something done more regularly by your siblings. Plus, you were once part of the most orderly leadership that took charge here since I left."

"Thank you," the Fiery One expressed gratitude, "although I am puzzled by some of your choices for Holy Living Ones and Valiant Ones, given their track records."

"I totally get it," sympathized the Creator, "Let's just say that your aunt had a say in the matter, and leave it at that."

"On the bright side," he digressed, "your new position and abilities, above those of the Seraphim, have enabled you to become the first foil of said choices, should they go on a power trip or two."

"So, might you have an idea when your next visit will be?" Hannah popped the question.

"No idea, to be honest," admitted Chuck.

One moment, he stepped closer to his angelic creation and confided one more matter with her. The next moment, the latter paced towards another of her kind and exchanged whispers.

Back in the center of the garden, the Creator stated his willingness to field questions from his angelic audience. The matters covered by the many questions that ensued ranged from the esoteric to the familiar, from the cosmic to the bounded, and from the celestial to the mundane. If it had not been for his confidante's discretionary manipulation of time, the questioning would have taken well over a month by human standards.

After all those conversations, he and most of his creations exchanged heavy farewells, and the angels then exited the garden. Other than the Darkness beside him, God could see one angel remain in their midst: the very angel who was never meant to leave the garden throughout all his existence.


	68. Opportunities For Critical Thinking

**Opportunities For Critical Thinking**

Amara and Chuck remained in the Garden of Heaven with just one angel. As the Darkness observed the being of light, God altered the perceived appearance of the place from a garden to a bar. The two primordial siblings exchanged thoughts telepathically on the new appearance.

 _Of all kinds of appearances, you chose our home?_

 _Meet the gardener, Joshua. When I left this place, he was the only angel with whom I maintained communications every now and then, and even then he was on the receiving end. This is for him._

 _Why that old arrangement?_

 _Oh? He thought that I was a gardener of sorts, and that his own gardening position allowed him to sympathize with whatever he could glean out of my situation. He was bang on, though, when he thought that I had my lonely times._

 _Well, now you've got me and I've got you, but who's he got?_

 _Last time, he had almost nobody, but somehow he never felt lonely. You know the experience I'm talking about, since you've assimilated the experiences of introverted human souls like his._

 _What messages did you tell him?_

 _I told him that I was on Earth, not being more specific than that. During the events before the aborted Apocalypse, I told him to tell our very own Dean and Sam to stay on the sidelines._

 _So, Brother, you contradicted your own disdain for the very idea of the celestially driven Apocalypse?_

 _Sis, there is only contradiction for those who, during opportunities for critical thinking, don't give my words a subversive hearing or a subversive reading. Take, for example, my one-time platonic, bromantic partner, whose experiences you've assimilated: I once told him to 'let me be, that my anger may blaze forth…'_

 _There's no need to mentally chant further about that ancient people of his._

 _Anyway, the tone of those ancient words of mine, to said partner, suggested anything but beseeching him to let me be. Naturally, he did anything but let me be. Meanwhile, Dean and Sam didn't have the benefit of hearing my tone when they got my message. Had they done so, they would have refused to stay on the sidelines without calling me a deadbeat dad._

Upon hearing this, the Darkness gave God a look of fascination with his subtle jab at Joshua's critical thinking abilities.


	69. Bar For A Garden

**Bar For A Garden**

As the Garden of Heaven continued to take on the perceived appearance of Amara and Chuck's new home, the Bar, the former entity kept one of her eyebrows raised towards the latter entity. The Darkness awaited explanations from God regarding the heavenly gardener in their midst, Joshua.

 _Did you just imply that your gardener has no understanding of your tone?_

 _Yes, I did._

 _So, despite this, he remained really special enough for you to upgrade him? Despite the shortcoming, he remained really special enough for you to choose this perceived appearance for the garden?_

 _Both are my ways of saying thanks, even though I've got no plans for him to be a guest at our home._

The two siblings ended their telepathic exchange and turned their attention towards the upgraded celestial being.

"Hello, Joshua," the older sibling greeted and extended her hand.

"It's a pleasure meeting you, Aunt," the created being of light reciprocated and extended his own hand to shake hers, before turning his attention to the younger sibling.

"Father," he began, "I'll second Hannah's compliments, which she whispered to me."

His father expressed thanks of his own.

"May I ask what's special about this perceived appearance?" he inquired, gesturing at the ceiling.

"This, Joshua, is an exact look-alike of our new home," the Creator answered and gestured with a finger towards his divine companion and himself, "outside all of Creation."

"Well, I'm glad you're no longer lonely wherever you're living," remarked Joshua, "but why meet me – only me – here of all places and appearances?"

"It's my way of saying thanks for remaining my last link to this place during my extended absence," admitted Chuck.

"Now that you are here," recalled the upgraded celestial being, "I do have one request before you and your sister are done with your heavenly visit."

"Oh?" the father let his surprise be known.

"Outside the garden, the rest of this place doesn't look like home to me," suggested the gardener.

"Indeed," interjected the Darkness, "your father has shown me just how much the design of this place has become anything but majestic."

Upon hearing the suggestion and interjection regarding the design of the rest of the heavenly realm outside the garden, God realized what his created being of light was requesting of him.


	70. Restoration Of Heavenly Majesty

**Restoration Of Heavenly Majesty**

The memory of witnessing the creation of Heaven came back to Amara, as Chuck took in Joshua's request to restore its original design. During the frequent teleporting across all manner of space and time that was the family meeting, the Darkness was shown by God the protracted genesis of the celestial realm in all its majesty. All the while, the dark cloud and the divine light concealed their temporal and overall signatures from the past version of the latter.

In the here and now, the two nigh-omnipotent entities of primordial existence took to their true forms. This time, it was the dark cloud who slowed time across all Creation to almost a standstill, while it was the divine light who went to work. The latter extended his own essence to cover as much of Heaven as he could. With precision, he dissolved what the celestial realm had become – including the doors, walls, floors, and ceilings – without affecting any personal heaven at all. When that was done, his only reminder throughout Creation of what the place had become took the form of the identical, building-like design of the second heaven. He then let his own essence become a temporary barrier between all personal heavens.

Next, the Creator reconstructed the Commonwealth in the image of the original design. He restored its spatial endlessness. He also restored its aesthetic majesty. However, the most important restoration that he made was for the benefit of those whom he created in the dual image of his older sister and himself: that of the sigils for them to use for traveling to and from other individual heavens.

When the restoration of Heaven's original design was complete, the dark cloud released her grip on time. As the perceived appearance of the Garden of Heaven reverted to its original form, Joshua observed his home in all its majestic glory. The upgraded angel rushed to the core of the extended divine light, as the extended divine light itself was shrinking back to ordinary form.

"Thank you, Father," he uttered, "for renewing this home of your beings of light."

"You're welcome," pronounced the father.

The two of them exchanged farewells once the divine light was back to ordinary form.

Finally, the Darkness and God formed a double helix of dark cloud and divine light, and departed Heaven in the sight of the grateful gardener.


	71. Not A Punching Bag

**Not A Punching Bag**

The two primordial entities, the dark cloud and the divine light, teleported back to Earth. The Darkness then assumed her human female form, curious about why they arrived at the edge of a mountainous forest, while God assumed his human male form.

"Is there anything particular about this place that is so special to you?" Amara began the earthly conversation.

"Not really," groaned Chuck, "It's just a good mix of plain, forest, and mountain."

A short pause ensued.

"Actually," he divagated, "I was holding back a part of myself in Heaven the moment you said you were simply making me face the consequences of screw-ups in Creation."

"In other words," drawled the confidante, "you became upset with me, yet persisted with finishing your heavenly business before coming back to Earth. This place is merely the ideal location to argue with me."

"Not just argue, Sis," clarified the confidant, "Remember some of the souls whose experiences you assimilated?"

The Destroyer nodded.

"Well, many of them mastered various, ahem, fighting systems for purposes other than just straight-up combat," explained the Creator, "Psychological development was one such purpose."

"I'm intimately aware of that line of reasoning," suspired the older sister, "and if I'm not mistaken, then not only do you wish to argue with me, but you also wish to spar with me."

"Human sparring, of course," her younger brother added with a tone of reassurance, "with maybe superhuman regeneration and invulnerability added to the mix."

With a slow gesture of his hand, the latter warded the area so that no being could see or hear what was about to transpire between them. At the same time, he remembered one particular telepathic exchange of theirs, during which he praised her growing grasp of strategy and tactics.

"Win, lose, or draw, you get to apply your experiential assimilation of human strategy and tactics to our martial arts duel," he stressed.

His divine companion pondered the importance of this contest and its privacy.

"I accept your proposal, Brother," she responded, "I do appreciate being able to defend myself, instead of becoming your punching bag for the duration of this anger management session of yours."

The two siblings changed their respective attires in an instant, with one donning a black silk uniform and the other donning a white silk uniform. The Darkness and God turned to one another and bowed.


	72. Dabbling With Uncontrolled Darkness

**Dabbling With Uncontrolled Darkness**

After bowing, Amara and Chuck agreed to full-contact, unprotected human sparring with one another. The Darkness focused intently upon God, who then commenced his martial attacks upon her. The latter wasted little time taking out his celestial frustrations upon the former.

As single punches, elbows, kicks, and sweeps were met with graceful blocks and evasions, the older sister managed to note the terrain for places where she could spar advantageously with her younger brother.

"Brother, you should be grateful you didn't – and don't – have to tell anyone, in specific terms, about your past dabbling with uncontrolled darkness," she reminded him teasingly, "during your process of creating the humans in our image."

"Still," responded the younger brother, "you blackmailed me!"

The seriousness of his attacks increased, as his single moves gave way to combination moves. Both divine combatants felt that, had they been mere humans, with no recourse to supernatural regeneration or supernatural invulnerability, they would not have agreed to this most extreme sparring.

"You dabbled," the confidante pronounced bluntly.

"Please, Sis! Far be it from me to defend those whom you've deemed to be an utter wreck and noisy mess," pouted the confidant, "but despite said dabbling, my scribe was actually right in a really twisted manner about them: in some ways, they're better than we are."

"There's a reason," he justified his argument, "why I declared to my ancient, platonic, bromantic partner that I will be what I will be, rather than I am who I am: I evolve, too! So do you!"

"I'm not disputing our capacity to evolve," conceded the female combatant, "Both of us have proven to be capable of doing so after a few hard knocks."

"Quite," added the male combatant, "Back to where we were: For example, this sparring match right now, what you call my anger management session, would have been a most welcome alternative to our existential conflict eons ago!"

"And yet, you didn't think outside the box enough when this mattered the most back then," Amara countered with an accusatory tone.

"See, even you agree!" Chuck pointed out, "You've just agreed that others can think outside the box more consistently than we can!"

Suddenly, the Darkness caught one of God's pressure-point attack moves, lethal by human standards, then saw a combat opening and countered with a martial attack of her own.


	73. Striven With God Directly

**Striven With God Directly**

Amara pressed onward with an assault of her own, nudging Chuck towards terrain more advantageous for her. All the while, the Darkness entertained an amusing thought for her full-contact, unprotected human sparring match with God. She then released an ever-expanding cloud of darkness behind her.

Before her counterpart could say anything, she reassured him.

"The cloud is simply to darken this place," explained the female combatant, as the cloud of darkness mingled with the wardings already in place.

"What's so special about sparring in the dark?" demanded the male combatant.

"Brother was left alone," cooed the confidante, "and his older, stronger sister sparred with him beneath the darkness."

Upon hearing those teasing words, the confidant came to a realization about the darkening of their sparring terrain: to some extent, they themselves were reenacting a wrestling match of Biblical proportions between siblings, the same one they had read about during their prayer service. After the realization came confusion, however, since there would be no way his counterpart would be stalemated or pressured into breaking off the match.

Meanwhile, as the match continued beneath the darkness, the older sister bade her time for the right moment. That moment came, when her attack move struck true and hit a pressure point on her younger brother's hip. As he gasped in excruciating yet merely human pain, she stepped back calmly.

"Like I said," Amara gave a reminder, "I'm not your punching bag."

Next, she summoned the cloud of darkness back to herself. As she did, a smirk came upon her countenance.

"We should cease this, for the darkness is dissipating," she offered.

A recovering Chuck was caught off guard by the nonchalant offer. In the original account, the offer had been made by a spiteful older sibling who could not overpower a manipulative younger brother. In the original account, it was that younger brother who had striven with beings divine and human, and had prevailed.

This time, it was the Darkness who had striven with God directly, and had prevailed.


	74. Departing Once Again: Epilogue

**Departing Once Again: Epilogue**

While Amara was satisfied that her full-contact, unprotected human sparring match had a different ending than the wrestling match of Biblical proportions between Jacob and Esau himself, Chuck became the first to sense an existential disturbance. It did not take long, however, for the Darkness to arrive at the same sensation and be informed by God.

"That is one nasty reaction to all the changes made to celestial existence," she drawled.

"An interdimensional rift has been formed," suspired her divine companion, "and it's not the stuff of science fiction. Of all the dimensions, why that one?"

"Which one?" wondered the older sister.

"The one containing the other original Leviathan, the primordial combiner with masculine characteristics!" the younger brother responded with panic.

"I thought you designed that non-corporeal realm so that the gestalt could not escape," recalled the Destroyer, while remaining calm.

"I did," emphasized the Creator, "Even if the now-adventurous Michael had just sired an immensely powerful hybrid with a human woman, such a hypothetical being would still not be powerful enough to cause that rift to form! Heck, even with power comparable to my two eldest sons put together, the primordial combiner itself can't cause the rift to form, let alone one between that prison and the newly-created Bottomless Pit!"

"That means," uttered the confidante, before a pause ensued between them.

"That can only mean that beloved dark cloud of yours had quite a reaction towards all these celestial changes," surmised the confidant.

Amara found herself caught off guard by that hasty suspicion.

"If she were up to no good, Brother, she would have simply released that primordial monstrosity of yours," she argued.

"Which is why the self-proclaimed Active Divine Feminine is up to something insidious, Sis," countered Chuck.

"And you and I are gonna find out!" he concluded, before grasping his divine companion's wrist.

Together, the Darkness and God took to their true forms, departed once more from Earth, and headed for the Bottomless Pit.

* * *

 _Author's Note: This story is the second completed work in a series of related works on FanFiction. The in-universe order as of the middle of March 2018 is listed below, and more related works are planned:_

 _Family Meeting_ _  
_ _Amara and Chuck have their family meeting by teleporting across the past and across all manner of space and other planes of existence, before the events of Back At The Bar._ _  
_ _(AU follow-up to Season 11)_ _  
_ _s/12439586/1/Family-Meeting_

 _Back At The Bar_ _  
_ _Amara and Chuck continue to be family, in God's Bar of all places. Along the way, something about humanity is shared that will forever reshape their relationships with each other and with the rest of Creation.  
(AU follow-up to Season 11 Episodes 20 and 23)_ _  
_ _s/11968468/1/Back-At-The-Bar_

 _Second Darkness_ _  
_ _As Amara continued to be family again with Chuck, during the events of Back At The Bar, she stepped out of her comfort zone and learned how to create. She created not just any creation, but the most powerful created being in existence, with the intent of replacing Death. The new creation fulfills that mandate, but develops other ideas, as well._ _  
_ _(AU follow-up to Season 11)_ _  
_ _s/12057498/1/Second-Darkness_

 _Bonding Outside The Bar_

 _Second Darkness: Power-Hungry Designs_ _  
_ _Amara and Chuck have just made immense changes to celestial existence. The former's intelligent creation, the most powerful created being in existence, has already been made aware of her once-fuzzy aspirations, and reacts to the changes accordingly._ _  
_ _(Set after the changes made in Bonding Outside The Bar, before From Darkness To Darkness, and so far – so far – after Second Darkness)_ _  
_ _s/12505192/1/Second-Darkness-Power-Hungry-Designs_

 _Time Out_ _  
Amara and Chuck respond to an existential disturbance arising from the changes they have made recently to celestial existence.  
(Set after Bonding Outside The Bar)  
s/12606839/1/Time-Out_

 _From Darkness To Darkness_ _  
_ _The ending of the finale of an AU Season 12: Amara stepped out of her comfort zone and learned how to create. The result was the most powerful created being in existence. The intention was to replace Death. However, the new creation has developed more ambitious ideas._ _  
_ _(One-shot follow-up to the following: Back At The Bar, Bonding Outside The Bar, Second Darkness, and Time Out)_ _  
_ _s/12451122/1/From-Darkness-To-Darkness_


	75. Citations

**Disclaimer: All Bible quotations come from the NJPS version, unless specified otherwise.**

* * *

 **Citations**

Chapter 4: Isaiah 45:7 (Judaica Press, not quoted)

Chapter 5: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Chapter 7: Genesis 32:4-6 and 32:31

Chapter 8: Genesis 33:1, 33:4, 33:11, and 33:17

Chapter 25: Genesis 3:14-15

Chapter 28: Zechariah 13:8-9

Chapter 34: Genesis 1:3

Chapter 37: Deuteronomy 6:16

Chapter 38: Numbers 20:10

Chapter 39: Exodus 10:21

Chapter 40: Exodus 34:29 and Isaiah 55:8

Chapter 43: Joshua 1:6-9

Chapter 48: Ezekiel 37:5-10

Chapter 53: Genesis 1:26

Chapter 55: Deuteronomy 29:28

Chapter 57: 1 Samuel 8:5

Chapter 58: 1 Samuel 8:11-17 (not quoted) and 8:18

Chapter 59: Numbers 14:27

Chapter 68: Exodus 32:10

Chapter 72: Exodus 3:14 (not quoted)

Chapter 73: Genesis 32:25-29 (not quoted)


End file.
